CAPTION: The Bishop of Plymouth at the Remembrance ceremony on Plymouth Hoe alongside members of the police and armed forces and city council representatives (Credit: Plymouth City Council)
Bishop of Plymouth Shares Childhood Memories of Falklands at Remembrance Service
The Bishop of Plymouth has shared his memories of growing-up in the city during the Falklands Conflict in his first Remembrance service since taking-up his new role.
The Rt. Rev’d James Grier led this year’s service at the war memorial on Plymouth Hoe.
The ceremony is one of the largest in the South West with serving members of the military present, as well as veterans and members of Plymouth City Council and the public.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Falklands campaign, which saw Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Army units from Plymouth deployed to the South Atlantic as part of the force sent to liberate the islands from Argentina.
Bishop James said as a boy “the reality of war came home” to him when a school friend said he was worried about his father because he had gone to the Falklands.
He continued “As I have returned to Plymouth, as bishop, having moved away as a teenager, everywhere I go I am struck by the impact of the World War Two on this city, when war not only came home to us, but destroyed the homes of so many… World War Two is not just a distant memory for this city.”
Bishop James also made reference to the current conflict in Ukraine and the refugees who are now in Devon “having to make new homes here, with the knowledge that their real homes may no longer be standing.”
After the ceremony, the bishop laid a wreath at the civilian memorial on Plymouth’s Lockyear Street.
Elsewhere in Devon, Remembrance services took place at hundreds of churches.
At Exeter Cathedral wreaths were laid at the war memorial on Cathedral Green and the Bishop of Exeter preached afterwards at the service. You can read his sermon here.
