Long Melford Royal British Legion members join mass war memorial pilgrimage

Long Melford Royal British Legion (RBL) members represented the village on a five-day memorial pilgrimage to a famous battlefield, as part of the ongoing centenary commemorations of the First World War.

Standard bearer Matt Baker and branch secretary Martin Richards joined thousands of people on the Great Pilgrimage 90 (GP90), between August 5 and 9 – 90 years on from the original RBL pilgrimage in 1928, when veterans visited the battlefields of the Somme in France and Ypres in Belgium.

The pair toured the same battlefields and cemeteries as the 1928 event, before a parade and ceremony in Ypres on August 8.

Mr Richards laid a wreath on behalf of the Melford RBL at the Commonwealth War Grave Commission’s Menin Gate Memorial, in honour of the launch of the Hundred Days Offensive, and in remembrance of the soldiers who never returned.

Upon their return to Long Melford the following week, both members were then presented with framed certificates by RBL branch president John Nunn and branch chairman Audrey Wreford, in recognition of their participation in the GP90 event.

Mr Richards said: “Great Pilgrimage 90 was a unique opportunity for the legion community to come together and bear our standards along the same route in Ypres taken 90 years earlier by the veterans and widows of the First World War.

“The whole event was incredible and very emotional for those of us who lost family members in the First World War.”

Described as one of the largest RBL events in history, the pilgrimage involved more than 2,200 legion representatives and dignitaries.

The Long Melford RBL confirmed its branch standard will now be emblazoned with a scroll reading Ypres2018, and it will be paraded in the village on Remembrance Day.