Poole Park was crowded yesterday as people flocked to attend the Remembrance Day parade.
The civic service of remembrance and dedication was conducted by the Mayor’s Chaplain Reverend John MacDiarmid. He was assisted by Reverend Lucy Holt of St James Church and Major Stephen Brevitt of the Salvation Army.
Rev MacDiarmid and Rev Holt led the crowd in prayer and hymns in memory of British soldiers who had lost their lives in conflicts around the world.
“As I looked at this elder man and thought that he’d given six years of his youth, I meant, thank you for going” – Rev John MacDiarmid
Rev MacDiarmid told the crowd about a Sunday 12 years ago, and about a member of his congregation who had fought in the Second World War. He said, “I used as an example the World War Two battle of El Alamein. I said it was in 1944. But there, in the congregation, Jim Ferguson was smiling and shaking his head. I asked him, ‘Did I get something wrong, Jim?’ He said it was in 1942. It’s then that I knew he’d been there. I just said, ‘thank you.'”
He clarified that he did not just mean to thank him for correcting him, saying “As I looked at this elder man and thought that he’d given six years of his youth, I meant, thank you for going.”
Two minutes silence were also observed in memory of the sacrifice made by the fallen, followed by a short speech by President of the Poole Branch of the Royal British Legion Dennis Broadhurst.
Representatives from all branches of the military, as well as various Cadet and Scout troops, were in attendance at the service and took part in a march after the service.
