24 June 2016
Members of the public are warmly invited to attend an Island commemorative ceremony to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. The ceremony will be held in the Howard Davis Park from 9 pm on Friday 1 July 2016, and will be attended by His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, the Bailiff, and the Assistant Chief Minister, (Senator Paul Routier MBE). Proceedings should conclude at about 10.15 pm.
A great many Jerseymen served in WWI including a special Jersey Contingent which fought at the Somme and will be remembered at the ceremony.
Attendance at the Ceremony is free and there are a number of seats available for which free tickets can be collected from the Bailiff’s Chambers, Royal Square, St Helier. There will also be plenty of other sitting and standing areas in the park suitable for watching and listening to the proceedings.
The ceremony will include a speech by the Bailiff, music, readings and images from the period as well as music by the Band of the Island of Jersey, and culminate in the symbolic laying of wreaths at a Drum-Head altar built during the ceremony by uniformed officers from the Jersey Field Squadron.
The ceremony will also include a large granite stone which is to be installed at Guillemont, France, ahead of its official unveiling on 3 September 2016, to commemorate the place where the Jersey Contingent fought during the Battle of the Somme.
The Bailiff said “I hope that as many Islanders as possible will join together for this important and moving ceremony in the Howard Davis Park to reflect and remember the start of one of the bloodiest battles in modern history one hundred years ago.”
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