World War One Single Commemorative Act

Two years ago, the National Association of Civic Officers inaugurated a commemoration of the First World War. This prescribed a short and simple programme to be followed throughout the land at the same time and on the same day, in whatever venue was appropriate for the council in question. And so I found myself in the main hall of Oxford Town Hall at 10:30 on Monday 13 March to witness the same ceremony that was being followed up and down the country at the same time. Although all were welcome to attend, nearly everyone present was there in a representative capacity, just as I represented the Freemen. The leaders of councils throughout the county were very much in evidence, wearing their chains of office.

The proceedings opened with singing from the City Chambers Choir, drawn from all departments of the Council. Four battery-powered candles were then brought in, carried by the Lord Lieutenant, the Lord Mayor, Colour Sergeant S Tester, and the City Rector Bob Wilkes, who is of course well known to us from the St George’s Day celebrations. Each spoke in turn.

The Lord Lieutenant opened with the famous words of Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, uttered on the eve of the War: ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime’. Then the Lord Mayor explained the ceremony. The four candles, each representing a year of the war, would be extinguished, to represent the feeling of darkness that overcame the world once the initial euphoria had been replaced by the realism of the horrors of war. This was the cue for two minutes’ silence. Then three of the candles were re-lit, to be placed in the window of the Lord Mayor’s Parlour for the next twelve months. At next year’s ceremony, all four candles will be relit, to symbolize how light eventually triumphed over darkness.

Then there was a reading by Colour Sergeant Tester. He read an extract from a letter home written by Second Lieutenant Ernest Thomas. He had enlisted as a Private in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry when he was 19, received the Military Medal in 1916, was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in 1917, but killed in action a few months later and has no known grave. His letter described graphically the misery of war to those involved in it. He told his parents he had not been out of his clothes for four days. They were living at the bottom of a muddy trench, surrounded by vermin. One fellow soldier was eating his meal off the ground – there were no tables – when a rat ran across his plate. The soldier skewered it with his fork, tossed it aside, and carried on with his meal. Such was the life of those on active service.

Another representative of the military, Cadet F S Berger, then read Secret Music, a poem by Siegfried Sassoon. The last line ‘...And music dawned above despair’ gives a flavor of this short poem, which shows how optimism can prevail when there is misery all around.

After another piece from the City Chambers Choir, prayers were read by the City Rector, including tributes to the fallen. And after closing remarks from the Lord Mayor, all were invited to sign the Book of Remembrance, which of course I was pleased to sign on behalf of the Freemen.

It was a short, but thought-provoking and memorable occasion. The final Single Act of Commemoration will be held 52 weeks later on 12 March 2018, when as before all will be very welcome to attend.