On the evening of the 11 November 2018, events will be taking place at St Michael & St Wulfad’s Church, Stone, to commemorate the end of World War One.
The event is open to everyone and here is the timeline for the event:
- 6:30pm Everyone to assemble within the Church.
- 6.45pm the Town Mayor and guests will assemble in the churchyard
- 6.55pm the Last Post will sound
- 7.00pm the Town Mayor will press the button to light the beacon at the top of the Church tower
- 7.05pm the Church Bell Ringers will ring the bells in celebration of the end of the First World War
The event will be part of over a thousand beacons that will be lit throughout the United Kingdom, followed by the ringing out of the bells to commemorate peace.
This is a commemoration inspired by a comment made on the 3 August 1914 by Britain’s Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey. He was looking out of his office window at dusk as gas lights were being lit along London’s Mall when he remarked to a friend ‘the lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime’.
The Country was about to be plunged into the darkness of the First World War, and it would not be four long years before Britain and Europe would again experience the Light of Peace.
In remembrance of the end of the War and millions who were killed or came home dreadfully wounded, beacons of light will be lit here in Stone and throughout the country.
