OLD SOLDIER HONOURED

OLD soldier Frank Parsons has finally been honoured in the heart of the town that he loved.

A two-ton granite monolith now stands in the centre of Bedworth to commemorate the man for whom November 11 was the most important day of his life.

For years, the ex-Royal Marine Commando organised, inspired and led Bedworth’s unique Armistice Day Parade, the proudest date in its calendar.

Saturday morning shoppers joined veterans and other townsfolk at the official unveiling of his memorial in All Saints Square.

Shielding under umbrellas against a relentless downpour, they stood in solemn silence as long serving Bedworth Cllr John Haynes officially dedicated the stone.

Mike O’ Brien, the town’s former MP and president of the Bedworth Armistice Day Parade Group, then paid tribute to the singleminded persistence and dedication of the man who made the town a place of pilgrimage and homage to the Fallen and the epitome of remembrance..

“Frank was a difficult man,” he said. “He was difficult with the Armistice Day Parade Group and difficult with the Local Authority, but he knew what we wanted and had the guts to get thing done.

“Frank was proud to be a Royal Marine. He was trained as a diver and was captured on a twoman submarine while attaching limpet mines to enemy battleships in Singapore Harbour.

“He was taken to the notorious Changi Jail, where was tortured like a lot of prisoners. I remember him once telling me how prisoners were lined up and executed by beheading.

“But he survived and when he came back from the Far East Frank was determined to make sure all of those who never came back from war were remembered and to keep alive the tradition of Bedworth’s November 11th Armistice Day Parade, just like Alfred Lawrence, Tom Bucknall and Maurice Smart did before him.

“Frank made it bigger and the parade grew into what it is now. That is why we are here today to honour the memory of the man who made sure Bedworth became known as the town that never forgot and has always held two minutes silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”

Thanks to Frank Parsons, many towns and cities throughout Britain revived the November 11th homage to the fallen that was replaced by Remembrance Sunday following the Second World War.

A public appeal was launched to provide his memorial: “Most of the money came from the people of Bedworth,” said appeal co-ordinator Lonnie Downes. “We just had to mention his name. They were magnificent.”

One of the proudest men at the unveiling of the memorial was Bedworth man Graham Bazeley, who is closely associated with the exservice community and whose idea it was.

“I felt it was about time we honoured Frank and what he did for the town,”he said. “The weather was bad, but we had a good turn out and I’d like to thank everybody who turned up and all those who donated. Frank deserves the memorial – I know he would be very proud.

Following the dedication, wreaths were laid on the graves of Alfred Lawrence, Tom Bucknall and Maurice Smart, the three men who also made sure Bedworth observed two minutes silence on November 11, the day the Armistice was signed to end the First World.

Frank Parson’s memorial stands in the shadow of the parish church and has a photograph on it of him proudly leading the Armistice Day Parade into the town centre.

From now on, everyone taking part in the Armistice Day Parade will march within a few feet of it - and be reminded of the man who did so much to make sure it continued.