100 Silences
A Pilgrimage of Remembrance to commemorate the Centenary of Armistice 1918.
A journey on foot to 100 Memorials of the First World War.
From Southampton, port of departure in 1914, to Dover, where the only body of a British soldier returned to Britain.
And onto London, to reach Westminster Abbey for the 11 Nov.
The Cenotaph
Silence 100
The final silence - at the main London memorial to the Glorious Dead. And to end, a moment of reconciliation with the Field Marshal who ordered the lads to assault machine guns...again and again.
Westminster Abbey
Silence 99
At the tomb of the Unknown Warrior - a song of German and English reconciliation and the bid to finally rest in peace...
London Victoria Station
Silence 98
Platform 8, where the body of the Unknown Soldier rested for one night before going on to be buried in Westminster Abbey.
Canterbury Cathedral
Silence 97
All 500+ names of local lads who were lost, laid out with crosses. And a great wooden horse beside them, symbolising the loss of animal life in WW1.
Dover Admiralty Pier
Silence 96
Dover Admiralty Pier is where the body of the Unknown Soldier was brought back to Britain - the only body to be returned home from the Western Front in WW1.
Folkestone Harbour
Silence 94
Nearly 10 million people moved through Folkestone Harbour during WW1. 120,000 refugees arrived here. Most of the post to and from the Western Front came through here. And the spy Mata Hari was arrested here. A last point of England for many.
Folkestone’s first public War Shrine
Silence 92
Built in 1917 as the first public 'War Shrine' for the dead lads of Folkestone.
St Leonard’s, Hythe
Silence 84
A most peculiar stained glass window, commemorating a 19 year old officer who died at the Somme. With an organ voluntary by a local Canon.
St Matthews Warehorne
Silence 74
A Marshland church, surrounded with grazing sheep. Sung to a German carol - because a focus solely on British casualties misses the whole opportunity of Reconciliation.
St Thomas Winchelsea
Silence 70
Silence #70: Winchelsea St Thomas. A dark interior with a song of crossing between realms. This mighty church, half destroyed by European conflict 700 years ago, has three three north arcade stained glass windows that were replaced in memory of the fallen of World War One.
St John the Baptist Westfield
Silence 68
A squat, massive and heavy church, whose walls fight to retain their silence from the busy road beyond.
St Peters Ashburnham
Silence 63
Local children practicing at Ashburnham St Peter's, in the heart of a Christian Community centre.
All Saints Herstmonceux
Silence 62
The Poet Laureate's Commemoration sonnet for Armistice 1918-2018, read by BPT Trustee Penny Furniss at Herstmonceux Church war memorial just above the Pevensey Levels at sunset.
Alciston Church
Silence 55
Deep quiet and lovely - a secret church between busier neighbours, with a wonderful war memorial and sense of echoing memory of the lost lads who once sat here.
East Chiltington Church
Silence 47
A Roll of Honour in this hidden Downland church, with a three-part harmony war song from Carrie Tree, Sophia Efthiamou, and William Parsons. The song is called 'Blood and Gold'.
The Chattri Memorial
Silence 42
A memorial high in the South Downs dedicated to the Indian troops who served in WW1 - especially the Sikh and Hindu troops who were cremated here after succumbing to their wounds in Brighton military hospital.
St Nicholas Bramber
Silence 39
With a snippet of the oldest written song in England (words and music together) - because this pattern of warfare and loss is more than 100 years old...
St Johns Patching
Silence 35
Roll of Honour at St John's Church, on the Old Way to Canterbury pilgrimage route.
St Mary’s Burpham
Silence 34
Silence and bells at St Mary's Burpham. Drifting from beyond the church are the sounds of sunshine revellers at the local pub. Where the soldiers longed to be...
Boxgrove Priory
Silence 29
The ancient priory of Boxgrove - with a Roll of Honour, and also the original Trench grave marker of an officer.
Bosham Harbour Memorial
Silence 25
On the shore of Bosham, an ancient coastal village where Cnut and the Romans sailed, stands the village-built war memorial honouring the fallen of WW1. Remembered in sight of the lapping waters...
The Home Well
Silence 22
From this well-water was made the parchment on which the Treaty of Versailles was written. Water that helped make peace.
St John the Baptist, Purbrook
Silence 19
At the memorial lychgate of St John the Baptist Church on Purbrook Heath, Hampshire. Would the fallen of World War One recognise today the sound of the Britain they fought for 100 years ago?
Benjamin Waterfall at St Peter’s Titchfield
Silence 15
Chief Petty Officer Benjamin Waterfall served in the Royal Navy on HMS Research at Portland, a depot ship for locally employed armed trawlers. He was a victim of the newly spread diseases of WW1.
St Mary’s Warsash
Silence 12
A snippet of a Rudyard Kipling poem, and silence by the Roll of Honour at St Mary's Warsash.
The dust blown at the memorial is battlefield soil from the Somme, Arras & Ypres. Sometimes there is nowhere to leave a small pile.
The Belgian Patriots
Silence 04
A monument to Belgian refugees who died in hospital in Southampton after their country resisted German invasion in 1914.
Hollybrook Cemetery, Southampton
Silence 01
This is the main memorial for the SS Mendi, a transport ship that sank carrying 646 men of the South African Native Labour corps. Struck by a postal ship in the fog, most of the men had never seen the sea before and drowned swiftly.
Also a memorial for many more British and Commonwealth troops.