Flower festival a ‘fitting tribute’
Top demonstrators show off works
A MOVING festival of flowers made a fitting tribute to the sacrifices of men and women through conflicts over the past 100 years.
Parishioners at St Mary’s Church, in The Fairway, South Ruislip, banded together with flower teams from neighbouring churches, community projects and National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) clubs to create a flower festival, entitled Lest We Forget.
Jan White, who helped to organise the festival, said: “Given the special significance of Remembrance Sunday this year at the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, we wanted the festival to be a fitting tribute and the results were breath-taking.
“The arrangements showed the enthusiasm and thoughtfulness of the designers themselves.
“We were very blessed to have been given arrangements, including from four top NAFAS demonstrators,” she said.
The church, decked out with flags and poppies, was a back-drop for stunning and colourful displays that told the stories of events such as the famous Christmas Day truce, the struggles in the trenches, Land Army achievements and the Royal Flying Corps.
Memorabilia including medals, postcards, ‘widows’ pennies’ – the commemorative coin given to the wives of fallen soldiers – and also embossed brass gift boxes received by the troops on the first Christmas Day of the conflict.
Even shrapnel and barbed wire from the Western Front were all lent to the church by Ruislip people.
For more pictures from the exhibition, please go to www.getwestlondon.co. uk