Help save Great War trip
From the Chorley Citizen, first published Saturday 25th Aug 2007.
A local historian has sent out a rallying call in a bid to save a trip to the Menin Gate and World War One battlefields this autumn.
Organiser Steve Williams, 55, of Brindle, fears the four-day trip in November may have to be scrapped due to lack of numbers.
Already booked on it is 91-year-old Chorley nun, Sister Francis.
Her father, private Henry Calderbank fought in the Chorley Pals at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, only to be killed on the Ypres Salient a year later.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate.
Sister Francis is scheduled to lay a wreath there on Remembrance Sunday evening during the official Last Post ceremony.
Steve, who is also secretary and co-founder of the Chorley Pals Memorial, said: "It will be a shame to have to cancel the trip. For Sister Francis it may well be the last time she can make the journey as she readily admits she's not getting any younger!
"Ypres and the Menin Gate are totally unique and the trip will give people a different experience on Remembrance Sunday - actually being on the World War One battlefields 89 years to the minute when the Armistice happened".
Steve will make a decision whether to go ahead with the trip at the start of September.
The World War One historian has organised and led similar trips over the last few years to the Somme and Ypres, and his visit to the Chorley Pals trenches at Serre on the Somme on July 1 last year was covered by BBC TV.
He is writing a book entitled Brindle and Hoghton Pals about the 320 men from the two villages who fought in the Great War. Due out by Christmas, it recently received £5,000 funding via an Awards for All' grant from the National Lottery.
The four-day trip will leave east and central Lancashire on Friday, November 9, and stay in Ypres for three nights, with a full day's guided tour around the battlefields in the area.
The highlight, however, will be the Menin Gate on Remembrance Sunday.
The memorial, famous for the playing of the Last Post at 8pm each evening, has the names of 54,000 men who were killed in the area during the Great War - many from Lancashire. The coach party will be at the Menin Gate on Remembrance Day, which falls this year on Sunday, November 11.
There will be a simple ceremony of remembrance, with poppies descending from the roof of the memorial.
There are places left. Details from Steve on 01254 854298 or via e-mail to info@chorleypals. org.uk.
Bookings must be made before the end of the month.
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