Burgess Hill remembrance: Large crowds turn out for poppy lantern procession
The procession started from the town's war memorial to St John's Park.
The lanterns were made by residents of all ages and each bore the name of one of the 145 servicemen named on the town’s great war memorial.
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Hide AdAfter the procession arrived at St John's Park there was a short ceremony of First World War songs, poems and readings, concluding with the Last Post and lighting of the town’s beacon by relatives of four of the men named on the war memorial.
A spokesman for Burgess Hill Town Council said packed crowds filled the town yesterday to show their respect and to pay tribute to the fallen.
More than 100 people turned up at the war memorial at 6am to hear lone piper Gary Anderson play Battle’s O’er, the traditional Scottish lament played at the end of battle.
Later in the morning, large crowds packed Church Walk for the morning remembrance ceremony at the war memorial and the remembrance service at St John’s Church afterwards.
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Hide AdAs the congregation left the service, members of the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers rang a three-hour full half-muffled peal on the bells of St John’s Church.
Burgess Hill’s WW1 Centenary events concluded with the church bells of St John’s ringing out in celebration of peace.