Book marks end of Great War project
AN EXTREMELY moving event to mark the final part of the three-year-long Charnwood Great War Centenary Project, was held at Loughborough’s All Saints Parish Church.
And it included a very special book launch.
One of the project’s main aims was to reposition two war memorials in the church, to give them the prominence they deserved with the advent of the 100th anniversary of World War One.
And in addition, the Lottery funded scheme embarked upon a quest to find the stories behind the people named on the memorials.
And now the fruits of that research has seen the publication of a marvellous book, The Fallen.
The project, made up of a partnership of Charnwood Arts, All Saints Church, The Bill Brookman Foundation and many volunteers, has staged various events over the past three years, highlighting how the town was affected by the terrible war, including the Zeppelin raid of 1916.
Its greatest achievement was the repositioning of the two poorly-sited war memorials, one from the church and one from the decommissioned Holy Trinity Church, which had been largely ignored since changes were made to the church interior in the 1960s.
The project also mounted a conference, debate and several concerts and exhibitions with the aid of about 40 volunteers.
At the book launch, which included the handing over of two special leather bound volumes to the church and the Carillon War memorial, Kevin Ryan of Charnwood Arts, read, with great feeling, the famous poem For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon.
Project member Bill Brookman told the Echo: “We are fortunate that Heritage Lottery funding allows us to give away this fascinating book which combines local history, world history and lavish colour illustrations.
“No one can bring back those thousands of local lives lost during that great world tragedy but at least we, one hundred years on, can stay true to that pledge made at the time – we will remember them.”