Rembrance Day Service - London

Remembrance day parade – London

On Sunday 11 th November 2007, seven members of the brigade went on a day out to London to take part in the Remembrance Day parade in Whitehall.

Sunday morning (or was it still night time) 2am we all piled into Alison’s car to start our long journey to London (207 miles according to the sat nav). We decided to leave early, as we didn’t want to get there late. We were heading to Harrow on the Hill to get the tube into the centre as we were told this was the cheapest way to go. We arrived at Harrow just after 7am, before the tube opened. The tube opened about 7.30am and we all piled in to catch the first train, we then had to change at Baker Street to get to Charing Cross. The tube is an experience not to be missed.

Having arrived at Charing Cross we headed for the main line station so that the girl’s could get changed into uniform and then leave the bags in left luggage. All done we went to find Whitehall (first time in London for most of us). When we arrived at Whitehall we then found the police cordon still in place, as we were early again.

Anyway that’s the start. We got through the cordon and had to wait in Whitehall until we were formed up 10am. We then watched as all the old soldiers marched onto parade from Horse Guards Parade before we could start the service at 11am. Once the service was over about 11.20am we had to wait again before it was our turn to march past the cenotaph at about 1210pm. All this waiting round took its toll on one of our members as she nearly fainted dew to dehydration and spent the rest of the parade in the first aid tent.

We marched down Whitehall along Great Georges Street and back up Horse Guards Road and onto Horse Guards Parade, and I could not believe the amount of people that waited and watched until all the parade had passed by. We were then dismissed and we started our long journey home after we went to McDonalds for dinner. We arrived back in Skelmersdale at about 7pm. We all had a great day out, including Kirsty who is hard to please.

This day was a great honour to take part in and if you get the chance to go do because I will be going again in a couple of years.

Andrew Shuttleworth
Commanding Officer
Christ the Servant Company

PS and we got on TV.

See photos of this event in our gallery