Remembrance 2023: Royal Star & Garter veterans attend services at the Cenotaph and at Homes

Residents and staff from Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton and High Wycombe, joined by relatives and the charity’s governors, attended the National Service at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday 2023. (Image supplied by Royal Star & Garter)

Remembrance 2023 has been marked at Royal Star & Garter.

Services took place in each of the charity’s Homes, in Solihull, Surbiton and High Wycombe, while a small number of veterans attended the National Service at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday 12th November 2023.

Remembrance Services were held at the charity’s Solihull and Surbiton Homes on Friday 10th November 2023, while the service in High Wycombe Home took place on Armistice Day, Saturday 11th November 2023.

Veterans and staff members from the Surbiton and High Wycombe Homes attended the Cenotaph service on Remembrance Sunday, along with Governors and Directors from the charity.

In Solihull, residents laid wreaths, while bugler Peter Tonks played the Last Post and Reveille. Among the guests present was Elaine Butler, President of the Warwickshire & Birmingham County Royal British Legion, and Squadron Leader Dave Kerrison from RAF Cosford. Some residents also attended a service at the War Memorial outside St Alphege’s Church.

In Surbiton, guests included Cllr Diane White, the Mayor of Kingston, Royal Air Force Cadets from 1034 (Surbiton & Esher Squadron), and bugler Vic Gilder, an Irish Guards veteran. Kingston Mayor Cllr White said: ‘It was a privilege to be among such lovely company at this important time‘.

The charity’s Partnerships Manager, Halani Foulsham, laid a Royal Star & Garter wreath at a service in Kingston on Sunday. Also attending was Stephen Vause, an Army veteran who suffered severe injuries in Iraq, and is cared for at Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton. On Sunday afternoon, singing duo The D-Day Dollies performed a string of wartime favourites from the 1940s for residents at the Home.

The service at High Wycombe also included a bugler, and a two-minute silence at 11.00am. Wreaths were laid by residents at the Home.

Among the residents attending the Cenotaph service in London was Bob Sewell, who served in the Army’s Catering Corps from 1954 to 1960. He said: ‘I’ve watched the Cenotaph service on TV for many years, so it was wonderful to experience it first-hand, with other veterans from Royal Star & Garter and elsewhere. I’ll never forget it.‘

During the build-up to Remembrance, events and activities took place in Royal Star & Garter’s Homes. One in High Wycombe was a concert with singer Fiona Harrison. Poppy-making and arts & crafts activities also took place in the Homes.

In 2023 Royal Star & Garter’s Remembrance campaign highlighted the benefits its care has on relationships between residents and their relatives.

Royal Star & Garter provides loving, compassionate care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia, and also has services reaching out into the community.

Royal Star & Garter is welcoming new residents to its Homes. Further information on this, new services including Lunch Club, Telephone Friendship Service and Day Care or to work for the charity can be found on the Royal Star & Garter website at www.starandgarter.org.

*Source of information : Press release from Royal Star & Garter.