We shall remember

VERY soon we shall see people starting to wear red poppies as Remembrance Sunday approaches.

While for some people this has become more irrelevant, for other people its significance has grown hugely over the years. The biggest event at St Helen’s Church, Sharnford, in recent times was an exhibition, held in August 2014, of Sharnford First World War soldiers. Information about local soldiers was displayed along with a timeline showing when in the war they had fallen.

One story particularly struck me. It’s the story of Captain Harris who died aged 26 on February 16 1915 at a battle near Ypres in Belgium. Captain Percy Cuthbert Harris was the youngest son of Colonel Harris, who had retired to live at The Shade, a dwelling on the road between Sharnford and Wigston Parva. Imagine the pride the family would have taken as they saw Captain Harris, dressed up in the full uniform of the First Batallion Suffolk Regiment, heading off to war. Then imagine, if you can, the grief when someone called at The Shade to bring them the news that he had been killed in action.

In 1919 a War Memorial was built in Sharnford - outside St Helens Church building on Leicester Road, Sharnford. Such memorials were built throughout the land and provided a local focus for bereft families and friends, whose loved ones had been buried overseas.

Research for the 2014 exhibition discovered that, although Captain Harris’ details were correct, there were a few errors on the Sharnford War Memorial. A couple of spelling mistakes were found and the name of one local soldier had been completely missed off the memorial. Furthermore, the memorial had started to lean slightly, so local people decided that it was time to put this right. Permission has now been granted to correct the mistakes, clean the memorial and to straighten it. This work will cost around £6,000 and there has already been some good local support. If you would like to contribute, please contact Rosemarie Simpson at The Old Rectory, Sharnford, with cheques payable to St Helen’s Church, Sharnford.

Sometimes on Remembrance Day we hear the following quote of Jesus (from John’s gospel): “My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them.”

These words also remind us that Jesus loves us and died a cruel death on a cross to show the depths of that love.