A series of events is to be held in Burnham-On-Sea over the next week to mark the centenary of the First World War.
St Andrew’s Church will host a special commemoration of the outbreak of World War 1 on Saturday evening (August 2nd) at 7.30pm.
“The event will involve songs and poems from the time, along with stories of those who left to go to the ‘front’,” said St Andrew’s vicar, Rev Graham Witts.
“The evening will also include a short act of commemoration for the victims of the war then, and now.
On Sunday 3rd August there will be a Civic Service at 3pm which members of the Town Council along with Burnham and Highbridge’s Mayor, Cllr Martin Cox, will be present.
This event will also see the Mayor planting a comemorative tree and 78 crosses in the ground around it.
“The number 78 is important as this represents the number of those killed in the First War from Burnham-On-Sea,” added Rev Witts.
Them on Monday evening (August 4th) from 10pm to 11pm there will be a candlelit vigil to mark the actual date of the outbreak of war – 11pm on August 4th 1914.
Rev Witts said: “I hope that people will come along and join in this marking of the centenery of the outbreak of the First World War.”
“The present conflicts in the world are a stark reminder of how ordinary people get caught up in the events of history.”
“This is a stark reminder then, not just of a historic event, but of the present cost of conflict at a community and individual level.”
