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THE QUEEN’S LANCASHIRE REGIMENT

 NEWS RELEASE

Regimental Headquarters, Fulwood Barracks, Preston, PR2 8AA. Tel: (01772) 260362.

 e-mail: rhq.qlr@btconnect.com    website: www.army.mod.uk/qlr

16 February 2006

ACCRINGTON PALS REMEMBERED AT ANNUAL COMMEMORATIVE SERVICE

The annual Regimental Church Service to commemorate the sacrifice of the Accrington Pals will be held at the Church of St John the Evangelist, Accrington, on Sunday (19 February).

The commemoration marks the 91st anniversary of the Valedictory Service held in the same church in February 1915 to mark the departure of the Pals – officially the 11th (Service) Battalion (Accrington), East Lancashire Regiment – for war service.

Some 50 civic dignitaries from Accrington, Blackburn, and the towns and cities of Lancashire will join with serving soldiers and regimental representatives from The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment – present day successors to The East Lancashire Regiment – for the service. Also on parade will be Queen’s Lancashire Regiment – badged cadets from the Lancashire Army Cadet Force.

Among the special guests at the service will the Mayor and Mayoress of Barnsley, whose own Pals battalion went “over the top” alongside the Accrington Pals – and shared their tragedy – on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.

The congregation will be led to church by the Regimental Colours of the Lancastrian and Cumbrian Volunteers, Territorial Army, and the massed standards of the Regimental Association of The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, and other regimental and local associations.

This is the 15th year that the Commemorative Service has been held on the Sunday closest to the date of the original Valedictory Service. The tradition began following calls from the local community for such a service, which resulted in the first one being broadcast on the BBC’s “Songs of Praise” programme in 1991.

The Commemorative Service is organised for The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment by 2nd Lieutenant Shelley Whitehead, from Great Harwood, Detachment Commander of the Blackburn-based Somme Detachment of the Lancashire Army Cadet Force.

Shelley’s own great uncle, Private Joseph Whitehead, served with the Accrington Pals during World War 1. He was killed in 1917 and is buried in France.

This will be the last year that the Commemorative Service will be held under the auspices of The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, which merges with the Kings Own Royal Border and Kings Regiments to form the new Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment on 1 July.  The annual service will continue, however, under the new regimental arrangements.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

  1. The Accrington Pals was a volunteer battalion recruited in the first days of World War 1 from the young men of Accrington, Blackburn, Burnley and Chorley, and the surrounding towns. They were amongst the many thousands who flocked to the colours in response to Lord Kitchener’s famous call “Your Country Needs You.” Formed in late 1914, the Battalion was ready for training by February 1915. Before leaving for the war, however, it was given a magnificent send-off, including the Valedictory Service in the Parish Church of St John, by the townsfolk and dignitaries of Accrington.
  2. After a short period in Egypt, the Accrington Pals were transferred to France where, at 7.30 on the morning of 1 July 1916, they went “over the top.” In less than 20 minutes, out of the 720 men who took part in the attack, 584 were killed, wounded or missing. They were amongst the 60,000 casualties suffered by the British Army on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the worst day in its entire history.
  3. The effect on the relatively small community of Accrington, where scarcely a family did not suffer loss, was devastating and lasted for generations.
  4. The experience of the Accrington Pals was little different to that of the dozens of other Pals battalions formed from the industrial areas and rural districts of Britain. But over the years the Accrington Pals in particular have come to symbolise the tragedy of all the Pals battalions, formed in the first flush of patriotic fervour without thought for the inevitable effect of battle casualties when units were drawn from such close-knit communities.