Residents to Plant Poppies to Remember

The 4th of August 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the day Britain entered one of the costliest conflicts in history - the First World War which ended on the 11th of November 1918, Armistice Day.

Nearly everyone in the UK has an ancestor directly affected by the First World War and all of us live with its effects today. The losses were felt in nearly every UK town and village as more than 1.1 million lives were sacrificed by men and women in service of the British Empire.

Rugby was no exception and 404 of its citizens who died in the Great War are named on the Whitehall Recreation Memorial Gate. Liberal Democrat Councillors and local residents have decided to mark the event by planting a field of poppies in Whitehall Recreation Ground to represent the flower of British youth who fell in Flanders, Ypres and the Somme. Whitehall Rec has strong links to the Great War. The Memorial Gates there were unveiled by Field Marshall John French, 1st Earl of Ypres in 1922 and a WW1 Tank stood by the gates for many years.

The Royal British Legion (www.britishlegion.org.uk) will be holding various events and is running a Centenary Poppy Campaign. For more Information please contact us.