Long Buckby teens lead the way for new memorial cairn

A hundred years ago the Battle of the Somme was raging, and by the end of the Great War, millions had died.

In Long Buckby 57 young men from the village perished in the ‘war to end all wars’.

Tom and Joe and their friends, teenagers living in the village today, wanted to commemorate the deaths of those young men, and to create a link with them.

The teenagers were instrumental in planning the construction of a memorial cairn to the lads of the village, at Cotton End Park.

All the construction was done by volunteers from Long Buckby, with financial support from the Buckby Feast Trust.

The memorial was completed earlier in the year, and on Sunday September 11, it was officially dedicated in a joint event with Long Buckby Green Spaces and Long Buckby History Society.

Around 50 to 60 attended, and Tom and Joe explained why they had wanted to build the cairn, and how important it was to remember the young men of the village who had died to protect and preserve our liberties.

Helen Baker, chairman of Long Buckby History Society, introduced five ‘witnesses’, residents of the village who talked about their ancestors who had fallen in the Great War, and showed photographs of them.

Helen Baker then formally inaugurated the cairn, speaking of the need to remember the fallen.

Members of the audience were invited to place a cross with a poppy at the foot of the cairn, each inscribed with the name of one of the young men who had died in the Great War. Lois Johnston read ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ by Wilfred Owen, and this was followed by the Last Post and two minutes silence.