O’s Somme Tour 2008

Further to the ground-breaking and successful inaugural tour in 2006, it was felt that a return visit should take place, particularly  as there was a substantial demand following those that came on the first trip saying just how much they enjoyed it. We were fortunate to once again having the services of the Leyton Royal British Legion Pipers and the experience of Les Bailey, the standard bearer of Leyton RBL, to ensure the ceremonies were of a good standard and that the itinerary, whilst based on visits to the Orient war graves and relevant memorials, was varied and interesting.

One of the highlights of the tour was on Saturday 12th July, when the very first parade undertaken by the combined Pipes and Bugles took place at the Thiepval Memorial where we commemorated the life of Clapton Orient centre-forward William Jonas. It was an amazing and remarkable ceremony, bearing in mind that we had not rehearsed or even knew what we would be able to do at the memorial. However as you will see by going to the following link, we did ourselves proud. ‘Leyton Orient Football Club trip of Remembrance’.

In the footage, as well as the Leyton Orient Buglers – Norman Coe, Steve Jenkins and Bob Sargeant, you will also see Jason Close, Captain of the 17th Waltham Forest parading the Company Colour, along with Lieutenant Geoff Norris of the 17th as well as our very own Colour Bearer Martyn Rolfe who had the honour on that occasion of carrying the wreath during the parade.

The memorial services held at Richard McFadden’s Grave in Couin and that of George Scott in St Souplet took place as planned during the wekeend. However, a special ceremony was held at the village church in Authuille at the memorial to 16th Highland Light Infantry, which was mainly comprised of officers and boys of the Glasgow Battalion of the Boys’ Brigade. This was a special memorial for us so it was left to Lt Geoff Norris to lead the memorial service and to lay a wreath on behalf of the 17th Waltham Forest and Highams Park Baptist Church.

The experience gained from the previous trip stood as all in good stead, with many wonderful comments received from the 180 people who travelled.