Come to our armistice service

Everyone is welcome to join the Friends of Victoria Park in a short Armistice Day service on Sunday 12 November at 2pm at the park’s beautiful cenotaph near the pond.
The Friends reintroduced the service last year in an effort to recall the lives of local people who lost their lives in war. Chair of the Friends of Victoria Park Richard East explains: “The Cenotaph is a prominent feature in the park and and last year’s service was very poignant. We are interested in the history of the park and one of our members Gillian Mawdsley recalled the lives of two soldiers from the local area who died at war - Friederick O’Beine of Broomhill who died in November 1917 in the Battle of Bourlon Wood and Alan Walker Souter, a parishioner of Balshagray Victoria Church who died on 11 September 1944.
This year in memory of Dunkirk, we will tell the story of Private Andrew Weir from Partick" who was killed in France in 1940. He was a relative of one our members. but we know hundreds of park users will have lost relatives particularly in the first and second world wars - so many that the decision was taken not to name them all individually when the monument was built.”
The cenotaph was designed in the early twenties by Yorkshire sculptor Francis William Doyle and consists of a bronze female figure with outspread wings standing on a globe and holding out a wreath with both hands - a symbol of Peace Crowning the Heroes. 
The inscription reads ‘Our beloved dead - to the Glory of God and in Grateful and everlasting rememberance of the men of Partick and Whiteinch who fell in the Great War 1914 - 1918 and 1939 - 1945’ and on the base it states ‘WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.’
In the 1920s, thousands of people attended the Rememberance Services in the Park as you can see from this video on Youtube  youtu.be/0cuCZLb_EXg
People of all ages are welcome to  join in this year’s short service to hear Private Andrew Weirs story and the sounding of the last post. The Friends will lay a wreath but anyone who wants to can mark the occasion with their own poppies or flowers.
For more information on the Friends of Victoria Park or about this event, contact  [email protected]