The Cessnock RSL Sub Branch Pipes and Drums will be commemorating the Centenary of Armistice, this Sunday, in a very special way.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The band will be travelling to memorial sites throughout the Cessnock LGA from 3pm during Remembrance Day to mark the historic occasion.
The commemoration will commence at the Cessnock war memorial on the TAFE grounds at 3pm on Sunday which will coincide with the time in France (5am) that the Armistice was signed.
The band will then head to Kurri at 4pm, Weston at 5pm. Abermain at 6pm, Kearsley at 7pm, Paxton at 8pm and before heading back to Cessnock at 9pm which represents the time the fighting stopped (11am France time).
At each station, a single bell will toll to mark the occasion while a narrative will be read by the band and RSL representatives will speak about what happened during the previous hour in the lead up to peace. At 9pm, fire brigade and church bells will ring out in each station for one minute.
John Edwards from the Cessnock RSL Pipes and Drums said that given 2018 was the Centenary Of Armistice, it was important to mark the momentous occasion accordingly.
“One hundred years since the end of World War One is definitely something worth commemorating,” Mr Edwards said.
“It’s also going to be one of the last opportunities that we will see the children of the men who fought and died alive to remember – after that it will be as far back in history as the Trojan Wars so we need to keep the tradition going.”
A Remembrance Day service will be held at the war memorial in the TAFE grounds in Cessnock from 10.55am. There will also services at Kearsley Community Hall from 10.45am, Rotary Park in Kurri Kirri from 10.45am, Weston’s memorial park from 10.45am and at the Branxton rotunda from 10.45am with the Greta and Branxton RSL sub-branches holding a combined service.
Despite the Armistice being signed at 5am on November 11 1918, by the time the fighting officially stopped at 11am, more than 10,000 soldiers had been killed.