Choir and congregation unite to mark Armistice centenary at church in Bury St Edmunds

At the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month 100 years ago, the guns finally fell silent on a war that had claimed millions of lives and changed the world for ever.

The poignant anniversary of the end of the First World War will be marked in Bury St Edmunds by a concert of music and readings by ladies’ choir The Aquarius Singers and guests on Sunday, November 11, at 6pm, at All Saints Church, in Park Road.

They will be performing songs well-known by soldiers fighting at the front and still familiar today with the audience invited to join in. Also on the programme are reflective songs of the time by composers such as Elgar, that were popular at the time, and
sacred music. The concert will end with a peace anthem from Bob Chilcott’s “A Little Jazz Mass”.

On display from the beginning of November will be a “fountain” of poppies knitted by members of the All Saints’ congregation, and members of the Aquarius Singers.

One knitter has made 367 poppies to represent the number of casualties sustained by the 12th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment in March 1918. A battalion numbered only in the hundreds and those lost during that month included this woman’s cousin.

The records of the troop, formed as a bantam battalion in Bury St Edmunds, in July 1915, shows the soldiers fought in many key battles of the war. Members of the church congregation and the choir have gathered photographs and other memorabilia of relatives lost in the war to display in the church.

First World War poetry is rightly celebrated for its searing insight into the experience of the conflict for men and women and there will be readings to complement the programme of music.

Poets represented include Siegfried Sassoon, Roland Leighton, W B Yeats and Vera Brittain. The 60-strong choir, founded 19 years ago by director Gill Garside, will be accompanied by Polly Anderson.

Armed Forces charity SSAFA and All Saints Church Lighting Fund will benefit from a retiring collection and refreshments will include Trench Cake, giving people the chance to experience the food of 1918.

Trench cakes were typically small, dense fruit cakes prepared under rationing rules and sent to people at the front to remind them of home. Flour, fats and eggs were in short supply so vinegar was often used to help the cake rise.