THREE hundred children will take part in a memorial service next month to mark Canada Day.

The event, on Monday July 1, remembers Canadian soldiers from the First World War who are interred in Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, Folkestone.

Pupils from a dozen schools on the Channel coast will each lay a posy on the grave of a Canadian soldier in a ceremony whose origins go back to 1919.

In many cases, the tradition has been handed down from generation to generation. Among those attending will be Folkestone mayor Cllr David Dickinson; Commander of the Dover/Shorncliffe garrison, Brigadier David Santa-Olalla; head of the Canadian Defence Staff in London, Brigadier General William Richard, along with ex-Service groups.

Buglers will sound the Last Post and Reveille from a ridge high above the cemetery.