Remembrance
The KVRA will once again be participating in the Parish Church Service on Remembrance Sunday at the Village War Memorial, Heathfield Road (near the junction with Fishponds Road) on Sunday the 9th of November starting at 10:45am. We will also set out our annual Poppy display from Commonside to the War Memorial and the Village Hall.
The Keston Poppies
The origin of the Keston Poppies can be traced to the KVRA’s 2014-2018 Great War Centenary Commemorations. In 2016 Peter Zieminski proposed to the KVRA that large Royal British Legion Poppies should be displayed in the Village from Commonside to the Village Hall. The KVRA together with others sponsored the Poppies which at the time cost £1.00 each. Each year since then KVRA volunteers (Peter Zieminski, Shelley Sturdy, John Wiltshire and his family) have been responsible for erecting the Poppies one week before Remembrance Sunday and then taking them down again a week later. The Poppies are then cleaned and examined for weather damage. Wherever possible, damaged Poppies are repaired and stored for use the following year. Unfortunately, each year however, the number of reusable Poppies diminishes and now cost £5.00 each to replace. The KVRA are grateful to those residents and businesses who have sponsored Poppies in the past. If you would like to support the continuance of our Village commemoration then please send a donation to the KVRA Treasurer (who can be contacted by email for an address at kestonvillagera@gmail.com), or by a BACS transfer to the KVRA - Bank Account Sort Code: 09-01-29, Account Number: 35321237 and quoting the reference “Poppies” – Thank you.
Photographs by kind permission of Laurence Pierce - lolp@mac.com
The 2020 Keston Village War Memorial Centenary Commemoration
Saturday the 10th of October 2020 marked the centenary of the unveiling of the Keston Village War Memorial and the conclusion of the KVRA’s ambitious and exciting project to commemorate this event. Severely curtailed due to Covid restrictions that were in place at the time the commemorative event nevertheless involved members of Keston Parish Church and our local community.
As the War Memorial is Grade 2 listed and situated on a Site of Special Scientific Interest, plans for cleaning it were drawn up with the support and guidance of The Friends of Keston Common and under the supervision of Bromley Council’s Principal Conservation Officer. Help was sought from the War Memorials Trust and Natural England who provided additional guidance.
Students from Ravens Wood School were invited to support the project and they designed the information board which was erected next to the “Keston Tommy” a metal silhouette of a British Infantry ‘Tommy’ bearing a poppy which had been placed next to the disabled access path that leads to the War Memorial.
The names of an additional twenty-three men associated with the Parish who died while serving with the Armed Forces during the Great War were discovered by Edward Williams and Peter Zieminski while researching their book ‘For King & Country – Keston Parish and the Great War 1914-1919.’ The KVRA project honoured the sacrifice of these men by adding their names and available photographs to the information board.
The KVRA project provides a fitting tribute to those who gave their lives for others in all wars and echoes the words of Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’ …
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Photographs by kind permission of Laurence Pierce - lolp@mac.com
