Children from St Lawrence CofE Primary School will be helping St Lawrence Parish Church remember York’s fallen heroes on the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One. The children will be creating a lantern for each of the 158 soldiers who are named on St Lawrence’s World War One memorial. The lanterns will light up the churchyard on the evening of Sunday 11th November.
Sarah Griffiths, head of RE at St Lawrence CofE Primary School said, “It’s important that our children learn about the York men who gave their lives in World War One. Many of those who died would have been at school here, and the school’s chaplain, the Revd Noel Hawdon, died in France on 16 November 1918. The children will be decorating paper bags with the soldiers’ names, and we put sand and a candle in each to create a lantern. It’s very moving when all the lanterns are all lit in the churchyard – if you imagine a man standing where each light is, the churchyard would be full of people”.
St Lawrence Parish Church has also published an interactive map on its website, showing where about half the 158 men named on the First World War memorial lived. Created by PCC member Iain Milne, the map gives details about the men and their lives, and can be found at stlawrenceparishchurch.org.uk/map-of-the-fallen-of-the-first-world-war.
St Lawrence Parish Church is holding two Remembrance Services on Sunday 11th November: an Act of Remembrance at the Parish Eucharist at 10.15am, and Choral Evensong with reading of names of the fallen at 6pm, which will be attended by the York Normandy veterans.