At around 3.30pm on a Sunday afternoon in mid December each year, a Christmas Memorial Service takes place at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site in Harrogate’s Stonefall Cemetery, with a candle being placed on every grave. Everyone is welcome.

The Candlelit ceremony has been established and organised by Benji Walker with the help of Elizabeth Smith from the CWGC. Despite often being a chilly, twilight afternoon, it is well attended and is something those present will not forget. Attendees include young representatives from the armed forces, the Harrogate Mayor, the local MP, and representatives from Harrogate International Partnerships, among many others.

Visitors can see the whole area is so well kept, with the rose bushes pruned and ready to flower again next year, while the Canadian maple trees have shed their leaves and stand silent.

At the beginning of the ceremony, those attending place lit candles in front of each and every one of the CWGC graves, stopping to remember those who died, and to ‘speak’ their names out loud.

Of the 23 New Zealand aircrew buried at Stonefall, five are from Wellington, Harrogate’s twin city. They are Flight Sergeant John Matthew Stack (age 27), Flying Officer Terence McKinley (age 21), Pilot Officer Charles Agnew (age 25), Pilot Officer Alfred Churchill Lockyer (age 23), and Flight Sergeant Francis Edward Hothersall (age 29).

As Harrogate is also twinned with Barrie in Canada, both Barrie and Harrogate are conscious of their role in representing all 660 Canadian air crew buried at Stonefall, including Flying Officer William Howard Porritt, age 25, from the City of Barrie.

Reminding us that the duty of memory is laid on all of us, young and old, the ceremony concludes with the Laying of Wreaths and a rendition of the Last Post.

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Say their names out loud

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From Barrie and from Wellington – now near neighbours

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A very poignant ceremony, especially when the evening light fades slowly

and the candles seem to get brighter.

Lest we forget

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