On Monday, 11 November 2024, at 11 am, people gathered at the War Memorial for a two-minute silence to mark Armistice Day. This silence began with the Town Crier ringing a bell and ended with a veteran reciting the verse:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

The crowd around the memorial, joined by others on the pavement across the road, responded, “We will remember them.”

Among those gathered was a class from Thameside School, continuing a tradition of attending for nearly a decade.

The annual Poppy Appeal in Abingdon, organised by the Royal British Legion, is part of a nationwide campaign to raise funds supporting veterans and their families. The donations collected through the appeal provide essential services, including financial aid, housing, care, and mental health support.

The poppy serves as a symbol of the annual act of remembrance.

The Royal British Legion’s Abingdon headquarters, located at the club on Spring Road, serves as the hub of local Poppy Appeal.

Inside the club, students from Kingfisher School have made a display inspired by the lines, ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row.’

Businesses across Abingdon have joined in, with poppy displays in honour of Remembrance Day.

The town’s churches also have poppy displays. In St Helen’s, some poppies are by a memorial board that lists the names of Abingdon residents who served and gave their lives in WWI and WWII.

The windowsills of Our Lady and St Edmund have poppies and wheat. The church yard has some war graves, that have been decorated with wooden crosses with poppies, and wooden crosses with a gold medal of valour.

This morning, the community gathered in large numbers at Abingdon’s War Memorial for a service of remembrance. Representatives from various organisations laid wreaths with poppies, honouring the memory of those who served.

Several of Abingdon’s war graves have been decorated to mark the occasion. The poppy wreath by six RAF graves in Spring Road Cemetery dates from a previous year and may get replaced. It commemorates the young airmen:
J. Ralph – Pilot (30th September 1939, Age 19)
C.N. Robinson – Pilot Officer (18th December 1939)
M.H. Costello – Wireless Operator (8th April 1940)
H.B. Hunter – Air Gunner (12th March 1940, Age 19)
J.M. Davies – Pilot Officer (8th April 1940)
H.B. Bennett – Aircraftman (10th June 1940, Age 23)

The Abingdon Royal British Legion held a ceremony to rename its bar after Lieutenant Raymond Charles Belcher, a local hero and one of the casualties of the D-Day landings.

Belcher, a 20-year-old airman from Abingdon, was the officer in charge of a harbour landing party. His plane was hit by flak after reaching the Normandy coast in the early hours of June 6, killing all on board.

The Legion’s initiative coincides with a series of events organized by the Spring Road social club to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The club will also host an afternoon cream tea for veterans on June 8.

Lieutenant Belcher, known affectionately as “Bunny” to his parents who lived in Vineyard, Abingdon, had been married for only six months to his wife Kay, an ATS corporal who was expecting a baby.

Local military historian and author Stephen King played a key role in uncovering Belcher’s story.

King collaborated with Clare Oldfield, Abingdon’s Poppy Appeal Organiser. ‘Bunny was a young man with his hopes and aspirations ahead of him’, said King, ‘but sadly that was not to be, indeed he may have been one of the very first D-Day casualties.’

The “Ray ‘Bunny’ Belcher” bar was unveiled during a visit from members of the D-Day Normandy Federation. To further honour Lieutenant Belcher’s memory, Loose Cannon Brewery renamed one of their beers ‘Abingdon Pathfinder,’ and patrons raised a toast to the fallen hero.

‘We are proud to be naming the bar after Bunny,’ said Mrs. Oldfield. ‘The sacrifices made, from the first to the last casualty, deserve to be honoured and remembered.’

Thanks to Brighton College for the picture of Lieutenant Belcher.

On February 20th, 2014, the Russo-Ukrainian War began as Russia pushed into the Crimean Peninsula. On February 24th, 2022, the conflict escalated with Russia launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At Abingdon Library, a collection of photos by the Oxford Kharkiv Association shows Ukraine’s enduring struggle, particularly in Kharkiv. The images chronicle Kharkiv’s transformation, from peace to war with destruction and rebuilding.

The Oxford Kharkiv Association are a group of volunteers who look to strengthen the links between Oxfordshire and the Kharkiv region.