Out & About Autumn 2018

GERALDINE GARDNER

EDITOR

W hat an amazing summer. I do hope you were able to enjoy the fine weather. We stayed at home and my one indulgence was some new garden chairs – which were well used, I might add. As the autumn nights draw in, it is a time for reflection. They say you should never look back, but, while sighing over the long-gone balmy summer evenings is not particularly constructive, it does no harm to remember those whose lives were cut short by the First World War. Over the last four years there have been various commemorative events marking milestones of the Great War, which ended 100 years ago this November, and a couple of years ago the Newbury Weekly News ran a series of features on local lives lost and other contemporary stories that were reported in the paper between 1914-18. It is impossible to pay tribute to every one of those brave men and women, but John Herring has revisited some of those recollections from a couple of key conflicts and found out how local historian Phil Wood is progressing in his research on all the names on Newbury’s War Memorial and how

the Friends of Newtown Cemetery are working to find out as much as possible about the 16 First World War dead buried in Commonwealth War Graves in the cemetery, making sure those who lost their lives are suitably honoured (p24). Jonathan Hopson also remembers two of his relatives who fought in the two world wars – his great uncle Joseph Hopson, killed at Gallipoli, and his uncle Denis Robinson, a spitfire pilot who survived the Second World War (p7). September also sees the grand opening of the Greenham Control Tower, a relic of another part of military history, an important landmark in Newbury and now open to the public and run with the help of an army of volunteers (p29). We also asked readers to send in pictures of family weddings from days gone by and we had a great response, with one family’s archives going back to 1915 (p34). So, perhaps a somewhat nostalgic edition, but worth remembering that we are the privileged ones who are able to enjoy modern life and freedom because of the sacrifices of our forebears.

Editor’s picks

INSIDE THIS ISSUE COVER PICTURE

Remembrance

Nostalgia

29 A COMMON VIEW

24 WE WILL REMEMBER A tribute to the local people who lost their lives in the First World War

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WEDDING DAYS A nostalgic look back at wedding celebrations from days gone by

Greenham Control Tower is open to the public, complete with an exhibition of mementoes from the Common’s rich history

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