‘THERE BUT NOT THERE’ WILL BE  HERE, FOR VERY SPECIAL REMEMBRANCE YEAR 2018 in SUNNINGHILL & ASCOT | Sunday November 11th 2018 will be a very important date! It will be 100 years since the WW1 guns fell silent!

 The long lists of names on the Parish war memorials are testament to a huge local sacrifice. This has prompted  Sunninghill and Ascot Parish Council  to secure a number of fitting memorials for this special anniversary, from the Registered Charity,  ‘Remembered’ . ‘There But Not There’ is the latter’s WW1 centenary Remembrance campaign, Remembered, which is  currently sweeping the country .

Remembered is marking the Centenary with three clear aims: To commemorate the fallen, to educate (lest we forget!) and to heal (fundraising for those who are still suffering after defending our country).

Four poignant, six-foot silhouette ‘Tommies’ (see picture below) supplied by Remembered, are starting to  appear at significant Sunninghill & Ascot Parish locations. The first is now standing near the door at All Souls Church in South Ascot (see below).  The ghostly soldier image weighs just 11kg and is only 6mm thick. The hollow outline of a man embodies the ‘There But Not There’ message. The Tommy even wears a poppy, for Remembrance Sunday. 

A key Tommy will stand beside the newly refurbished Victory Field pavilion – (the biggest project the Parish Council is undertaking this year).   Up in the Field, on the top bank, there will also be a memorial lectern, bearing an explanatory panel about the Field’s origins. It will be next to a very attractive bench. Both bench and lectern are the same thought-provoking, poppy design (pictured below)...

Victory Field – Ascot & Sunninghill’s main recreation ground is to be the focus of the WW1 tributes because of its history: It is named after our WW1 victory and was constructed by returning WW1 soldiers in a major earth-moving exercise. Scores of local men used spades and wheelbarrows to transform a sloping field into one suitable for playing football on and also to provide a steep bank which formed a natural grandstand.  These works were paid for by a local landowner; a generous offer to provide employment for returning servicemen in the inter-War recession.

According to the minutes of the Parish Council meeting on 10th August 1918 ‘the Council decided to consider the provision of a play field for the boys of Sunninghill.’ On 10th December 1919 a conveniently situated meadow of over five acres was purchased for £2,440 and the ground was named ‘The Victory Field’. Trustees of the Sunninghill War Memorial Committee were selected and Mr. C. Carlos Clarke, the secretary-treasurer, collected most of the money subscribed which also funded the War Memorial at St Michael and All Angels’ Church.

The Royal Borough has also pledged to join the Parish Council in upgrading the footpath leading from Oriental Road to the Field in this special year. The Parish is also updating some of the older play equipment.

As Victory Field was being built, the Comrades Club in Sunninghill was formed as the servicemen wanted to retain in ‘civvy street’ the camaraderie that they had found in the services. The Club opened on 21st December 1921. For all these reasons, it’s fitting that there will be further ‘Tommy’ silhouettes at the entrances to St.Michael and All Angels’ Church, and All Souls Church, as well as on the grass in front of the Sunninghill Comrades Club in Bagshot Road, Sunninghill.

The Registered Charity – ‘Remembered’  intends that , ‘There But Not There’ will be the defining commemoration of the end of the 1914-1918 war, installed where the men and women came from, back in the communities they left behind. In providing the ‘Tommies’ benches, lecterns and much besides, their aims- to Commemorate, Educate and Heal - dovetail perfectly with Sunninghill and Ascot parish Council’s proposals for marking Remembrance 2018. Any funds raised will support a number of mainstream, military charities.For more information on Remember, visit www.therebutnotthere.org.uk

Pictured Below: