TWENTY men who gave their lives in the two world wars were remembered in a ceremony at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.

The names of soldiers from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars were read from a Book of Remembrance.

About 50 former servicemen and their relatives gathered in the military chapel in a corner of the cathedral for the Turning the Pages ceremony on Saturday at 11am.

The ceremonies, held once every two months, were started by former Royal Green Jacket Colonel Richard Hill about 20 years ago.

Colonel Chris Laurence MBE, formerly of the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars, who conducted the ceremony, said: “I have done this a number of times before so I’m fairly relaxed about it now, but if you’re going to do it, you must do it properly and wear your medals.

“I often say all my real friends are from the military. Once you have gone out in the pouring rain or sat in the mud, done some pretty unpleasant things together, it makes a camaraderie you can’t get anywhere else.”

One of those who attended was Roger Price, 77, of Woodstock, who did his national service with the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers in the 1950s.

He said he had made new friends going to the ceremony and also met up with old ones.

 

The following names were read out:
Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars:
First World War 1914 - 1918
Walter Scott
John Willoughby Scott, D.S.O.
Albert Shayler
Norman Sheasby
Sidney Arthur Sheppard
Second World War 1939 - 1945
Frank Steadman
Frederick Stone
Joseph Edgar Taylor
J Thornton
Phillip George Upton
Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry :
First World War 1914 - 1918
Gladwyn Maurice Turbutt
James Jeffery
 Arthur Gregory
Henry Brockal
William Henry Ford
Second World War 1939 -1945
Ernest Roland Brown
Leslie Hodges
Samuel Manning
Albert John Rawlings
Ernest Walford