Centenary service commemorates 12 Herts village soldiers lost at war

Last weekend on Saturday 27th November, in the village of Anstey, Deputy Lieutenant Emma Robarts laid a wreath at the centenary of a war memorial remembering 12 men whose lives were lost in the Great War.

One hundred years on, the centenary was marked with a service based on the original service. Led by the Rev James Sawyer, the service was extremely moving and welcomed family members of the Anstey soldiers, whose names are engraved on the memorial and read out on Armistice Sunday.

The soldiers were: Bert Bentley, Herbert Bradford, Bernard Catley, Arthur Caton, Frederic Chappell, Reginald Coxall, Henry George Hicks, Kenneth Martin, Frank Scripps, Herbert Smith, George William Strange and Hubert Wick.

In attendance at the service was the niece of Coxall, the granddaughter of Scripps, relatives of the Catley family and relatives of Smith.

The service began – just as it did for the unveiling of the Anstey War Memorial in 1921 – with the hymn Fight the Good Fight, followed by a reading from the Bible.

Royston Town Band Development Section played during the service with their bugler playing The Last Post, and a muffled church bell was tolled 12 times.