The Warwickshire market town of Bedworth has today celebrated its 100th year paying respects to the fallen on Armistice Day.
Bedworth is the only town outside of London to have observed the two minutes’ silence at 11:00 on November 11 every year since 1921, earning it the nickname the ‘town that never forgets’.
The 100th anniversary of Bedworth’s Armistice Day respects drew thousands to the town, following a smaller, scaled back event the previous time around [in 2020] due to Covid-19 restrictions.
To mark this year’s celebrations, a junior member of the Royal Family, Her Royal Highness Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, attended the remembrance service as a guest of honour and led the Armistice parade as part of the celebrations.
Speaking to CoventryLive, chairman of the Bedworth parade committee, Ken Whitehead, said that her presence was a fitting way to mark the centenary.
“We are so proud that she has come, I am chuffed to bits”, he said.
“The Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire called me [ahead of the parade] and said that a member of the Royal family would like to come along.”
Also featuring at the service was Bedworth’s newly installed peace podium, which was erected upon the town’s Rye Piece Ringway to mark the centenary. It was used for the first-time during today’s parade as the saluting base and is now to be used annually in the town’s future remembrance celebrations.
The podium is the first of its kind in the UK and forms part of Bedworth’s wider Armistice shrine, which also features a commemorative wall stretching from the Rye Piece Ringway along the road that leads to the remembrance gates of the Miners Welfare Park.
Photo by Fraizer Dunleavy on Unsplash
