Respects paid despite lockdown measures
All areas: Scaled back ceremonies to remember fallen
Respects were paid in the Royal Borough and surrounding areas as scaled back Remembrance Sunday services commemorated those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
In Maidenhead and Windsor, the traditional parade could not take place and crowds normally lining the streets were asked to remember at home.
Elsewhere, parish and town councils – including those in Cookham, Marlow, and Wooburn and Bourne End – turned to live streaming their services.
People also fell silent at 11am yesterday (Wednesday) to mark Armistice Day, the day an agreement was made to end the fighting of the First World War.
In Maidenhead, outside the Town Hall in St Ives Road, the Royal Borough held a private ceremony for those invited to attend.
Group members laid wreaths and observed a twominute silence, with the vicar of nearby St Mary’s Church, Will Stileman, conducting a service.
Those who laid wreaths included the scouts, emergency services, members of local rotary clubs, girlguiding and the Salvation Army.
Royal Borough mayor Cllr Saynonara Luxton (Con,
Sunningdale and Cheapside) was there.
She said: “It was moving. In different circumstances, it was still wonderful.
“All over the world there are wars going on and someone has lost somebody – even now, in the present. It was very touching.”
Ray Williams, a member of the town’s Royal British Legion (RBL), added: “I thought the council organised it really well. They marked us out so we were all two metres apart when we were laying the wreaths.
“It is a shame that the children and the youngsters were missing – I think it is important that they take part in these things. But with COVID, they couldn’t.
“Hopefully next year we can get back to normal.”
He added: “There are still members of the armed forces losing their lives every year.
“And as far as I am aware, there has been only one year since the First World War when no members of the armed forces lost their lives.”
Elsewhere in Maidenhead, the fire station paused for a brief moment to remember
those who gave their lives. Officers from Thames Valley Police also joined in with services across the borough.
Meanwhile, Maidenhead Golf Club raised more than £600 for the Royal British Legion by asking people to send in names of those they wish to remember and placed them on a cross on the course.
“We might be in lockdown, but we will never forget,” the club said on Instagram.
Hand-made poppies were selling fast at Sunday’s Farmers’ Market in Maidenhead, too.
The tea stall staff at the market had crocheted the poppies themselves and when the tin was emptied and found to contain £112, the money was forwarded to the Royal British Legion.
In Wooburn Green, the relatively recent traditional tribute of crosses on the village green are still in place, until November 21.
The white crosses display the identities of fallen soldiers and are accompanied by poppies.
Over in Burnham, young members of the 1st
Burnham and Hitcham Scouts paid their respects by observing the two-minute silence on their doorsteps.
A private Remembrance service was also held at the war memorial in the village, attended by members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, from Slough.