Hunstanton RNLI crew take part in moving Remembrance day

RNLI volunteers marched through the streets to Hunstanton's towering cenotaph overlooking The Wash, which carries the names of 71 who made the ultimate sacrifice.

They joined town councillors, veterans and members of the emergency services for the parade to the memorial in the resort's Cliff Top Gardens, along with people from local organisations and businesses who came to pay their respects.

Lifeboat and hovercraft crew member Roger Smith carried the lifeboat station's standard, while senior hovercraft commander Lee Torrice laid a wreath on behalf of Hunstanton RNLI.

Roger's great, great maternal uncle John Scott was a 19-year-old private in the Norfolk Regiment, who grew up in Hunstanton and died on the Western Front in October, 1917.

His name is carved on the war memorial at nearby King's Lynn, where he worked as a hairdresser before joining the army in 1915 and being posted to the trenches the following year.

'I felt proud and honoured to represent my crew and my forbear,' said Roger after the service.

'My great, great uncle fought at the Battle of the Somme and his body was never recovered, only his wallet.'

Recently-retired launch authority Jeff Lenton's distant cousin Gerald Lenton is remembered on the Cenotaph at Hunstanton.

He was Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment, who also fell on the Western Front.

He died of his wounds on 27 July, 1917, aged 33 and is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium.

Father James Monro, who lead the service in the sunshine, said: 'We meet in this place and in the presence of God.

'We remember with thanksgiving and sorrow those whose lives, in world wars and conflicts past and present, have been given and taken away.'

The names of all 71 carved on the towering memorial overlooking the sea were read out, before a wreath laying, lessons and prayers.

Parade commander Ralph Hamlet, who is also a launch authority at Hunstanton RNLI, told those present: 'The Legion of the Living salutes the Legion of the Dead.'

Before the blessing and National Anthem, he recited the Kohima Epitaph: 'When you go home, tell them of us and say for your tomorrow, we gave our today.'

After the service finished to applause from the crowd, he said the turn-out was the largest for many years.

Fishing boats operating a few hundred yards off the town's beach paused their work while their crews paid their respects.

Notes to editors

Hunstanton's Cenotaph carries 71 names. They include 54 who fell in the First World War (1914 - 18), 15 who fell in the Second World War (1939 - 45) and two who died in peacetime.

A memorial nearby carries the names of 32 people who died when in the East Coast floods of 1953.

A number of the current lifeboat crew are service veterans.