Lest we forget

Remembrance Sunday began with me leading an Act of Remembrance at the Queen's Regiment war memorial in Old Jamaica Rd (left).

We were joined by local residents, veterans, and a detachment of Army Cadets. Wreaths were laid by Sir Simon Hughes, Neil Coyle MP, and representatives of Southwark Council and the Army.

With St James's bells already ringing it was time to move back to the church for our main Remembrance Sunday Service, always well-attended by visitors, as it was today.

For both services I wore on my preaching scarf the badge of the Royal Naval Association (right).

As I explained to the congregation I do this for two reasons: firstly, when I was Vicar of St Peter's St Helier I was chaplain of the Carshalton branch of the RNA and I like to recall the comrades from those days; and, secondly, because my Dad (below) served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

Remembrance Sunday makes me think of him. He joined the Navy as a 17 year old in 1939 and served for the whole of the war on destroyers in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Arctic oceans.

He was awarded six medals by HM Government (including the Burma Star and the 1939-1945 star for those who served the whole war), and, after the fall of communism, one from the Russian government for British sailors who had served in the Russian convoys.

He virtually never spoke about his wartime service but, when I was 11, he gave me his medals.