ON the evening of Armistice Day, around 65 villagers gathered in Buckden Institute for the unveiling of the new memorial, commemorating the 11 men from the parish who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars.

The memorial was commissioned after it came to light during last year’s centenary of the end of the Great War that there had been a plan for such a memorial in the 1930s.

A committee was formed in 1930 to raise funds and erect a memorial in Hubberholme Church, which duly happened; the minutes of a meeting of the committee, held in the Institute in 1938, record that the surplus funds were to be spent on buying gold watches for the surviving combatants, and on erecting a memorial in the Institute itself.

For unknown reasons the memorial was never erected in the hall.

The Institute committee decided that, as part of the project to refurbish the Institute, it would be appropriate to include a memorial to the fallen of the parish and, in doing so, enact the resolution of 80 years previously.

Funds were raised through the Tesco “Bags of Help” scheme, the memorial was made by local cabinet maker Rob Lusted, and it was sign-written by Butterfield Signs.

In a short ceremony, Peter Vetch, chairman of Buckden Institute, explained the story behind the memorial after which Megan Lightfoot read a poem she had written to commemorate the centenary of the Great War.

The local vicar, the Rev James Theodosius, gave a reflection of the significance of remembrance, after which the memorial was unveiled by Ann Peters, whose great uncle, Bernard Tennant, is one of those commemorated on the memorial.

Buckden Singers then sang “Dona Nobis Pacem” after which Lesley Taylor played The Last Post.

Also present was Peter Beresford whose uncle Ernest Beresford is also commemorated.