In West St Helen Street, as in many other roads in Abingdon, people observed the two minutes silence from doorsteps. A single bell tolled from St Helen’s Church. John beat the drum and people came out, or stopped where they were. Just before 11 the last post played, and at 11, as St Helen’s Church clock struck eleven, the two minutes silence began. We thought of people still traumatised by war – some we know from Syria live in Abingdon. We remembered the young men who went to war, and the many who didn’t come back.

Like other older streets in the town we know some of the names and a little about the men who served in WWI from the Abingdon Roll of Honour.

In the absence of the traditional Abingdon remembrance parade and service at the war memorial, Abingdon Royal British legion club has placed almost 100 remembrance crosses on the war graves in both the Abingdon cemeteries: the Spring Road Cemetery (old),

and the Spring Gardens Cemetery (new).

Wreaths and crosses had been placed, without a parade, at the war memorial, by dignitaries, and organisations, and families. Throughout the day people visited and read the inscriptions.

(Thank you to Elizabeth for the video and to Clare for the pictures at the Cemetery)
Here is the Town Council Video of the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Mayor, Royal British Region, and Chair of the VWHDC laying wreaths …