Vigil marks Somme sacrifice
ATWELVE- HOUR vigil was held to remember the fallen from The Battle of The Somme 100 years on.
The commemoration at Veterans in Communities in Haslingden was observed from 7.30pm on Thursday to 7.30am on Friday, with whistles blown at 7.28am.
The sound not only marked the exact time a century ago that the soldiers were ordered over the top, out of the trenches into No Man’s Land in France and many were gunned down by German machine guns, it also started a two-minute silence at the VIC Centre.
Operations manager Bob Elliott said: “At one stage when the VIC Singing Group performed in the conference room we had around 40 people in the centre.
“We had permission to show a special Somme film from the Imperial War Museum and that was shown three times during the night.
“VIC arts and crafts coordinator Darren Horsnell painted, veteran Dave Almond, who makes walking sticks, showed people how to whittle wood and poetry was written and debated.”
Veterans Pat O’Reilly and Mark Culshaw brought along their living museum and saluted with replica weapons when the service was held at 7am on Friday.
Several members of VIC managed to stay awake the full 12 hours, but on Friday the centre on Bury Road was manned just by a skeleton staff as many headed home to catch up on much missed sleep.
Councillors, former councillors and clergy all joined the veterans throughout the night to observe the vigil.
Bob added: “It was very important for VIC to remember The Somme, it was the bloodiest battle fought by local men during the First World War.
“For our tomorrow they really did give their today and veterans and civilians owe them a great debt.”
Friday, July 1 marked exactly 100 years since the beginning of the First World War battle in which more than one million soldiers were wounded or killed.
The first day of the Battle the Somme was also the bloodiest day in the history of the British army, which suffered 57,470 casualties, onethird of whom were killed.
Events were held across the borough to mark the centenary.