Remembrance Service 2023

It was a wet Friday morning when we were preparing the Remembrance Garden for the visitors coming to this annual service. As soon as we put out the chairs we found that we had to refold them as puddles were forming on the seats but nevertheless we had a good turnout of visitors and with the aid of paper towels and umbrellas we were able to carry on.

The service was led by Rev’d Chrichton Limbert, vicar of Christ Church, Southgate. It started with children from Laurel Park secondary school and Bowes and Walker primary schools reciting poems followed by Chris Kaufman from FoBP and Jackie Pinney from the British Legion. At 11.00am a bugler played ‘The Last Post’ indicating the start of the two minutes silence and afterwards there was the laying of wreaths at the cairn in front of the war memorial.

Speeches were given by Cllr Mohammad Islam, Deputy mayor of Enfield Council, and Bambos Charalambous, MP for Enfield Southgate. Finally children from Hazelwood School sang four songs popular at the time of the first and second world wars ending with Vera Lynn’s “ We’ll meet again”.
By this time the sun had started to appear and everything, including the fountain, looked brighter in the Garden. Many of the visitors walked to the Palmers Greenery Community cafe in the park for a very welcome hot cup of coffee or tea and cake.