September meeting
Our September meeting was a Communion Service in Christ Church Portsdown, followed by tea and biscuits.
The Blue Pilgrims, (October meeting)
The history of the Fellowship of the Blue Pilgrims dates back to 1902 and was founded by Beatrice Hankey. Born in Barnet in 1858, in a large middle class family, she felt drawn to a religious life and to helping others.
She formed a small group of women who were called “Knights” based on an ancient translation of the word “Knecht” meaning “disciple”.
In the pre-welfare days they brought help to communities in times of trouble, in 1912 in Staffordshire during the miners’ strike, in World War I, during the Depression of 1928 and their links to the Welsh Valleys still remain.
The “Links” became International and Camelots (the name given to meetings) were held as far away as Austria and Bangladesh.
For many years the “Knighthood” had a base at The Chantry, Sevenoaks, but since 1982 has had no central home – its home now being thought of as wherever a Blue Pilgrim lives and works. For Regional and Internal Camelots, Retreat houses are used as did the early Pilgrims.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, (November meeting)
As our meeting co-incided with their Exhibition to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the ending of World War II, our meeting in November was held in Christ Church itself and not in its nearby hall.
Steven Cass gave a most interesting and informative talk with slides on the history and work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Sir Fabian Ware, a British journalist, was too old, at 45, to join the Army, so became a Commander of a mobile ambulance unit of the British Red Cross.
Arriving in France in September 1914 and finding there was no official documenting of the location of the graves of service personnel he formed a unit within the Red Cross to do so.
In 1915 this was transferred to the British Army.
In 1916 the Army Dept. of Graves and Registration & Enquiries was created with Sir Fabian as its head.
In 1917 the Imperial War Graves Commission was established by Royal Charter.
By 1918 587,000 graves had been identified, with 559,000 casualties having no known grave.
In July 1927 the first memorial to those who had no known grave was bult at Menin Gate at Ypres in Belgium and others followed thereafter.
From the start of World War II in 1939 the Commission organised Grave Regional Units utilising experience gained from World War I.
With increasing numbers of civilian casualties, Sir Winston Churchill agreed to also record Commonwealth Civilian war deaths.
Later it was recognised that the word “Imperial” was no longer appropriate and the organisation became the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 1960.
The Commission now has locations in 150 countries, both large cemeteries and smaller graveyards commemorating over 1.7 million war dead.
Nowadays the graves and their surroundings are cared for by gardeners and stonemasons with a view to sustainability and climate change using strategies for reducing water usage, using drought tolerant plants and phasing out harsh chemicals.
Christmas Tea Party, (December meeting)
On Tuesday December 2nd we held our usual Christmas Tea Party with guests. About 60 people enjoyed a buffet meal with “bottomless” teapots. There was a Bring and Buy table, Mothers’ Union Merchandise, a large raffle and Christmas Theme table quiz.
