A silence by breeze

Anthony Broadbent, former Royal Ordnance Corps, remembers his uncle killed in the Second World War.

THE silence was palpable . . . lifted only by a breeze buffeting the rugged moorland grasses.

Bright sunshine doused the simple red poppies, worn on coats, jackets and hats of the hundreds who turned out for the Royal British Legion Service on Dedication and Remembrance at Pots on Pans in Saddleworth.

And, as the plaintiff rendition of the Last Post by lone cornet player Nicola Bolger faded from the hills, the service took on an added poignancy.

Because the war in Afghanistan was still top of mind for many young families who had toiled the rough terrain to share two minutes of silence on this not so foreign field.

Proud
They stood shoulder to shoulder in silent solidarity with proud, elderly faces united in tribute to their loved ones, friends and colleagues who had lost their lives in previous wars.

Anthony Broadbent, (57), from Greenfield, a former member of the Royal Ordnance Corps, remembered his uncle, Jesse, a merchant seaman, who died in 1942.

In contrast, young members of Saddleworth Air Training Corps in camouflage outfits, flanked by Oldham Mountain Rescue Team, joined in The Reveille, accompanied by the 16-strong Dobcross Brass Monkeys, an adult training band, conducted by Phil Cumberworth.

Howard Sutcliffe, associate priest of the Saddleworth Team, led the congregation in prayers and hymns, and Joe Hughes, of the Saddleworth branch of the Royal British Legion, laid the wreath, supported by Stanley Cowburn, the branch treasurer.

Earlier, in a touching move, Saddleworth businessman and leading Rotarian Malcolm Hill, overflew the scene in his light aircraft accompanied by Jeff Hine, dropping a delicate stream of poppies.

Under this bright canopy, a young baby toyed with a poppy pinned to his mother’s coat and a tiny tear on the cheek of an elderly lady was captured like a shimmering crystal in the sharp mountain air.

Yes, Saddleworth did indeed remember.