Monday, 4th August 2014 will mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1.
And to mark the occasion, Frome will be holding events over Sunday 3rd August and Monday 4th August.
Central to this will be the Service of Reflection at St John’s Church on Monday 4th August at 7.00pm. Music, readings and images will invite people to reflect on the mood now, one hundred years after the Great War, “The War to end all wars”…..
Following the service, and to coincide with a broadcast from Westminster Abbey, between 10.00pm and 11.00pm, the hour when the first guns were fired one hundred years ago, Frome is being invited to join the nation to observe: “Lights Out – One million candles to Remember”.
“Frome Memorial Garden outside the Memorial Theatre will be a place where people can come to mark this candle-lit vigil, all with a single light,” explained Jane Norris.
“The Royal British Legion is promoting a special candle, that will be on sale from M&S, from 4th July, but any candle will serve to make up one million, in commemoration of the number of lives lost.
“The day before, on Sunday 3rd August at 3.00pm, the WW1 soldier cast from a model of Frome man, Charlie Robbins, will be dedicated in its new location at the Memorial Garden outside the Memorial Theatre. This symbolic move to the war memorial has been made possible after months of negotiation between the Frome Town Council, the Royal British Legion, the Memorial Theatre and Frome Museum and TYCO Ltd (owners of Singers), and an agreement has been made for the long term loan of their WW1 soldier.
“Set on a plinth, it will incorporate the significance of the current memorial stone, that was hewn from Foster Yeoman quarry, and which itself represents local industry, and the sacrifice of those who left and never returned, and for the families left behind.
“With TYCO’s kind agreement with Frome Town Council, this statue will become the town’s new war memorial located outside of the Memorial Theatre and will form the centrepiece of Frome’s official commemoration of the outbreak of WW1.”
