Talk on Armistice Day

Todd Gray will talk about the First World War war.memorials in Devon 

His talk will be at the Starcross Pavilion on Saturday November 11th, from 3pm until 5pm. ADMISSION IS FREE but to cover costs we sell teas and coffees and have a raffle. Please bring a raffle prize.

Starcross’s war memorial does not stand alone – there are some 2,000 in Devon, a network of memorial beacons that uniquely recognise and light up the collective identity of each community. Each memorial was the outcome of its community’s local committee that discussed, argued, rowed, debated and decided upon what kind of memorial it wanted and the form it would take, and then built it.

 When you pass Starcross Station, do you ever stop to look at the war memorial at the bottom of the station’s steps, A and B, see page 2? If so, have you thought how  it, and similar memorials, relate in the past to your family or friends who died in World War I, 1914-18? ‘Our family roots are now our branches’ applies to our own family members, some four generations ago, who were killed in the World War I fight for national survival against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

 

What had the deaths of that generation of our relatives achieved? And today,

what memories of what they fought for do we remember, recognise, honour and meditate upon annually during the 11^th of November commemorative national Remembrance Day two minutes of silence on the 11^th minute of the 11^th day of the 11th month of 1918 that marks the end of World War I?

 

From 1918 to the mid 1920s the British government supported every community in Britain, be it a hamlet, village, town or city to create, design and build its own war memorial to remember and honour men and women who ’Died For King and Country’ in World War I, some 12,000 in Devon alone.