This week we have received the very sad news of the death of Willie Richardson, who gave so many years of service to people on Romney Marsh, as a County and District Councillor and a former Coxswain of the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat. He was also a wonderful man whose friendship and advice I hugely valued. He was much loved and respected by all who knew him and worked with him, and we all send our deepest sympathies to his wife Judith and their family. Willie had lived all his life in Dungeness and was a keen supporter of the power station, and the campaign to see a new one built. When I saw him to discuss this just over ten days ago he was full of enthusiasm and good ideas.
We will miss you Willie.
Today is also Remembrance Day when we mark the sacrifices made in by our armed forces at home and around the world. We also particularly remember those men who have lost their lives in Afghanistan in the last year, including Rifleman Peter Aldridge, who lived in Folkestone, and the members of the Royal Gurkha Rifles who have been on a tour of duty there; Rifleman Suraj Gurung, Corporal Arjun Purja Pun, Major James Bowman, Lieutenant Neal Turkington, and Gunner Zak Cusak.
As the years pass it becomes more and more important that we also remember the sacrifices people made in the First and Second World Wars. I believe that each new generation should understand what people did in those years to defend freedom in its darkest hours. We see reminders of this around the District, from the solitary grave of a Battle of Britain pilot on Romney Marsh, to the military cemetery at Shorncliffe and the Road of Remembrance in Folkestone.
Readers of my column will know that I have been involved for the last few years as Chairman of the Step Short project which is working to mark the role Folkestone played in the First World War. It is believed that up to nine million men passed through the town at that time, to and from the trenches of the Western Front in France and Belgium. In August, the Step Short memorial walk from outside The Grand on The Leas, down the Road of Remembrance and to the harbour, traced the last steps that many of these men would have taken on English soil. To help people understand more about the role Folkestone played during the war, and the stories of the people involved here at that time, the Step Short project is soon to launch a new website. This will include a walking guide for the route of the Remembrance Walk, information about places of interest linked to the war, as well as a lot of archive material from the period. I hope that this will be of use and interest to local people and visitors, and please let me know if you would like any more information about this, or the Step Short project.
Damian Collins MP for Folkestone and area
http://www.damiancollins.com/2010/11/remembrance-day/
http://stepshort.gofolkestone.org.uk/index.html
Here you can see some of the children appearing in this year’s FHODS pantomime Babes in the Wood. As usual there will be teams of dancers from the Anthea Barnes’ School of Dancing as well as the junior FHODS performers. Claire Beddow, this year’s director of Babes in the Wood says,
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