More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A ceremony at a clifftop memorial marked the first time a unique act of remembrance has been held in Britain.
The British Torch of Remembrance has, since 1965, been taken on a pilgrimage to Belgium to remember those who have fallen in past wars.
But with Covid-19 still around, Dover's Duke of York's Royal Military School this year brought the torch to the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne.
The school has been associated with the torch ceremony since 2008, and in 2016 staff and officers from the school were given the responsibility of organising the annual event.
With no ceremony in 2020 and travel controls from coronavirus still present, the school asked the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust if it could move the Act of Remembrance to the Memorial.
The event included buglers playing the Last Post and the laying of wreaths.
Site manager Jules Gomez welcomed the Duke of York’s Principal, Alex Foreman, the secretary of the British Torch of Remembrance, Andrew Nunn, and a smartly uniformed contingent of students.
The school group had kindled the torch the previous day during a ceremony at Westminster Abbey before bringing it to the Memorial.
They replaced the usual pilgrimage to sites including the Menin Gate and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Belgium.
From the Memorial the torch was taken to The Dover Patrol Memorial at St Margaret's, Dover, and St Andrew’s Church, Buckland.
Mr Foreman stressed the importance of the involvement of the students in the ceremony.
Pupils in ceremonial uniform stand guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior each year during a service to rekindle the torch led by the Dean of Westminster.
Mr Gomez said: “We were privileged to welcome the school to the Memorial for this important occasion in their calendar and we were impressed by the smart turn out and moving ceremony.
"The National Memorial to the Few makes an impressive focal point for Acts of Remembrance such as this.”
The heroes of the Battle in Britain, who had won against the odds in 1940, are known as The Few because of a speech by the then Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few."
Meanwhile the annual service and parades take place as usual on Remembrance Sunday, November 14.
In Dover there are parades on the town centre precinct before and after the 11am silence and prayers, which are at the War Memorial in Biggin Street.
That day a service will take place around the War Memorial at the Victoria Hospital, in London Road, Deal.
At Folkestone the ceremony is at The Leas Memorial Arch from 10.40am.
Hythe Town Council will stage its annual civic parade and service at the War Memorial in The Grove, with the parade setting off from the south bank of the Royal Military Canal near the Canal Bandstand at 10.20am.
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