BY INÊS LOPES ines.lopes@theresidentgroup.com
Despite grey skies and rain, around 185 members of the British community gathered outside St. Luke’s Church, Palhagueira, in Gorjões near Santa Bárbara de Nexe for the Remembrance Day service on Sunday to honour those who had given their lives in conflicts throughout the world.
Wearing their poppies with pride, they paid their respects to those who are serving or have served in the British Armed Forces.
Remembrance Sunday, organised by the St. Vincent’s Anglican Church and the Royal British Legion in the Algarve, was attended by the British Consul to the Algarve, Clive Jewell, who took up his post in July.
An Exhortation was spoken by Father Martin Watts, who said a prayer for the servicemen and women who died at war or continue to suffer the consequences of fighting and terror, while Father Haynes Hubbard led the main service at the church.
The Act of Remembrance took place next to the cross, where bugler Scott Natzke sounded the Last Post, followed by a two-minute silence and then Reveille was sounded.
The British Consul laid a poppy wreath on behalf of the British community in the Algarve and wreaths were also laid by Paddy Turner and Masie Skodbo on behalf of the Royal British Legion Algarve Branch.
Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday closest to November 11, the anniversary of the end of the hostilities of the First World War at 11am in 1918.
It is also the final day of the two week period of fundraising by the Royal British Legion through the Poppy Appeal.
Last year, in the Algarve alone, €21,500 were raised through the Poppy Appeal, and a total of €33,000 in Portugal as a whole.
The funds are then sent to the UK for distribution to the welfare of ex-British military personnel and their families.
This year’s figures have not yet been released. Sandra Wilkinson, the Royal British Legion’s Eastern Algarve Poppy coordinator, told the Algarve Resident: “The Poppy Appeal is closed for the year. We are still counting the money but have no provisional figures yet.”
The Portugal branch of the Royal British Legion was founded more than 50 years ago in July 1956 by a group of Legion Members to safeguard the welfare, interests and memory of those who are serving or have served in the British Armed Forces.
For more information about the Royal British Legion in Portugal, please visit www.portugal.legionbranches.net
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