A wonderful warm sunshine morning greeted a big crowd gathered behind Gtech’s West Stand, to remember our lost players.
Cliff Crown, said: “This remembrance service is a crucial time for reflection and immense gratitude for those who selflessly served in the First and Second World Wars. We honour their sacrifice as a club and community.
“Without them, we wouldn’t have the freedoms we enjoy today. Through remembrance at this time of year and beyond, we will always try to keep their memory alive.”
Stu Wakeford called us all to order as Sharon’s warm welcome followed to set the scene.
Nity’s speech
Today, on behalf of Brentford Football Club, we are honoured to join you all as we remember the Brentford players who served our country in the First and Second World Wars and lost their lives. We also remember all the people who lost their lives in service as well as civilians.
Those in service selflessly made the choice to sacrifice their lives for this country and our future. They left their families and their livelihoods, facing tremendous challenges.
Last season, Bees United organised this plaque as a tribute to the bravery of these men. We’re fortunate to have this plaque as a reminder, today and every day, that we wouldn’t be here without these people.We also wouldn’t be here without the sense of community we bring together here today. The community they fought for.
So, I thank Bees United for their efforts to ensure these people are always remembered.
I thank you all for joining us here today, to reflect and pay gratitude.
On a personal note, I am also here to remember my father, who also served, at the time in the army in India, which was part of the British army before India’s independence, fighting the second world war in Asia.
May we never forget these men who helped paved the way for our future.
Stuart’s words followed
We gather today bound by a simple but profound act: we have turned up. In our busy lives, with a thousand demands on our time, we have chosen to be here. To stand together. To remember. And that matters.
We remember, first and foremost, those who represented this club – young men who left homes and families, never to return. We remember not just the battles they fought, but the lives they lived, the laughter they shared, the futures they surrendered for their loved ones and for us.
Wilfred Owen, who himself did not survive the First World War, wrote:
“What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns.”
He witnessed the waste, the horror, the terrible price of war. Our presence here today is our answer to his question—we are the passing bells. Our remembrance, our turning up, gives meaning to their sacrifice. But remembrance extends beyond just these men and beyond battlefields.
We also remember all those we have lost, parents and grandparents, friends and loved ones, those taken too soon, those who shaped us and are no longer here. They too are held in our hearts, their memories kept alive by our simple act of pausing, of thinking, of refusing to forget. In a world that constantly scrolls or swipes and constantly clicks, there is dignity and respect in stopping to remember.
We reject the option of forgetting. We know all of these lives mattered, that loss leaves a space that can never quite be filled. So thank you for being here. For turning up. For standing as a witness to memory. In doing so, we ensure that those we have lost are never truly gone.
We will remember them.
Wreaths were laid and Paul Briers kindly laid the BU wreath
The wreaths
For the Club, wreaths were laid by Nity Raj and Jon Varney.
The players were represented by Marcus Gayle and Karleigh Osborne.
For Bee United, Paul Briers laid a wreath and for BIAS, Dave Minckley.
The Community Trust, was represented by the new Chair, Graeme Atherton.
Then a prayer from the Reverend Penny Vincent
Words by Robert Laurence Binyon, published in The Times 21 September 1914
Peter Gilham read the traditional words most oftern associated with remembrance of the fallen, Binyon’s final verse;
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
.
The Last Post and after the two minutes silence, the Réveillée, was sounded by Adam Gray (The Rifles Unit)
Marcus Gayle read the simple words epitaph, to close the service
“When you go home, Tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, We gave our today.”
And a few more to finish
And afterwards in more relaxed fashion, at The Express Tavern
We caught young Ed one of the Magpie’s mascots and NIgel proud Dad – said they loved it (less so, the result)