LaSER Remembrance Trip

36 cadets and 5 staff from across the whole of London and South East Region recently travelled to Belgium to take part in the annual Armistice Day Poppy Parade at the Menin Gate as well as to visit sites of specific importance during World War I.

Kent Wing were represented by cadets and staff from 173 (Orpington), 213 (City of Rochester), 228 (Bromley), 359 (Bexleyheath), 500 (Headcorn), 1579 (Erith School) and 2374 (Ditton) Squadrons.

Cadets and staff visited Poperinge and the shot at dawn memorial, Essex Farm Dressing Station where the ‘In Flanders Fields’ poem was written and the Passchendaele 1917 Museum as well as the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot Cemetery. There was also a visit to Langemark, the German military cemetery as it is important to remember the war dead on both sides.

On Armistice Day itself, the Air Cadet contingent, led by Flt Lt Dave Purvis, Officer Commanding 359 (Bexleyheath) Sqn, marched through the streets of Ypres, past the Belgian war memorial and Cloth Hall to the Menin Gate. At the Menin Gate, FS Daniel Hicks from 213 (City of Rochester) Sqn and Cpl Theodore Waters from 173 (Orpington) Sqn , along with several other cadets, were chosen to be wreath bearers.

Later on that day, cadets and staff were invited to attend a second service at Tyne Cot Cemetery by the UK Defence Attache to Belgium and Luxembourg, Gp Capt John Dickson, where they received personal thanks from the Belgian Prime Minister.

At Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, several cadets laid crosses on the graves of fallen soldiers. Cpl Theodore Waters from 173 (Orpington) Sqn laid a cross on the grave of Capt Noel Godfrey Chavasse, the first man to be awarded two Victoria Crosses in the same conflict. Cdt Louie Milton (also from 173 Sqn) laid his cross at the grave of Pte R MacLeod from the Cameron Highlanders while Cdt Gethin Jones from 2374 (Ditton) Sqn chose to place his cross on a grave simply marked ‘A Soldier of the Great War’.