Page 67 - Sylvia Malt - Side by Side v1

Armistice Day - 12th November 1919

"St. John's, Sidcup was a sad, unlit church. The air was grey save for one weak glint of sun that fought its
way through the gloom as a little symbol of eternal light.

The nave was filled with schoolchildren who had marched up from the National Schools with their
headmaster and his staff, and not very far away was their old headmaster, who taught many of the boys
who fought and fell, and who were being remembered in the spirit of gratitude.

Round about the boys and girls were the older people - the people of the great war, some of whom were the
sufferers. The little white-robed choir boys were present in their stalls. The vicar took his stand in the
chancel steps as one of the people, and the short service opened with the singing of hymn 'O, god, our help
in ages past.'

Sidcup's 90 dead - In speaking to the children, the vicar gave them the message of Earl Haig, the
Commander of the British Forces in France, in which it had been said that 600,000 of our race had by the
sacrifice of their lives, upheld the liberty of the people. The vicar said he hoped that that day, as long as
the British Empire lasted, would be regarded as one for showing tribute to those who had gone before.

Shortly they would hear the bell toll 90 times, one for every soul who went out of the Parish and did not
return. That day, he wanted them to remember, something was being unveiled and veiled in London, and
these things would ever stand before them.

The first was the cenotaph, which was being unveiled in Whitehall, the last was the grave which would veil
the body of the unknown warrior in the abbey which would lie there in memory of those who had fallen in
the war.

The service concluded with the recital of the Lord's prayer and a special prayer for the "dear departed" and
then at the sound of the bell, came the two minutes silence, faintly broken by little sobs of remembrance
here and there - many in tears. The National Anthem was sung with broken emotion."
Sidcup Kentish Times