For the third year running, we attended the City of Wakefield Remembrance Sunday parade and wreath laying ceremony at the war memorial on Wood Street, to pay our respects.
We met at the car park adjacent to Charley Browns from 10:30 and a dozen Wakefield MAG members then joined the large crowd which had gathered at the Wood Street War Memorial. Great to see Matt & Pat from the West Yorkshire VJMC in attendance too (who are also Wakefield MAG members in their own right !!!).
It was certainly more crowded than last year, partly due to a larger gathering, but also owing to large parts of the pavement being dug up as part of the area's redevelopment and pedestrianisation scheme.
At 10:45, the parade, which had set off from the cathedral, marched up Rishworth Street, led by the Wakefield Cathedral clergy,
marching bands,
members of the 9th Parachute Squadron of the Royal Engineers (Wakefield's own TA unit),
The Rifles,
army, air & sea cadets, police, fire service, a big group of veterans,
scouts and numerous others.
The service started after the 11:00 town hall bells, with the two-minute silence and wreath laying, led by the Dean of Wakefield. Chas Milner, ex-RAF man, laid our own Wakefield MAG wreath, which we had ordered from the Royal British Legion the previous week. The service was over by 11:30, and with the weather a bit poor, we made our respective ways home, all except Chas and Jagster, who had a ride over to a Royal British Legion Riders Branch organised event in Mirfield (which was apparently very good, so we will organise a ride out over there for all of us (weather permitting) after the Wakefield Service next year).
All in all, a great thing to do and we will be attending again in 2012.