Community Award 2018
On the evening of Tuesday the 23rd of October, Chelwood Bridge Rotary Club had the privilege of hosting Peter Yeates and his grandson Lance at their club meeting at the Carpenters Arms. Peter Yeates, sole organiser of the Double Hills Memorial Event in “The Arnhem Field” is the recipient of the 2018 Chelwood Bridge Rotary Club Community Award
Peter has been doing this for 38 years. When putting Peter forward for the 2018 award the Parish council wrote “The Double Hills Memorial Service is the most important form of community event in the district. Local communities come together for a service in joy and sorrow but the spirit that ensures it happens is always the same “.
The Double Hills Service is a memorial to the twenty-three men who gave their lives in the Second World War when their glider crashed and exploded in the Double Hills meadow whilst on its way to the Battle of Arnhem as part of Operation Market Garden. This year marked the 38th year of the Paulton Arnhem Remembrance Service. Residents of Paulton and Farrington Gurney, together with veterans and the relatives of the soldiers who died, continue to remember the lives lost 73 years ago on Sunday 17th September 1944. A parade is held through the village and participants make their way to the Memorial for the Service and the laying of poppies and crosses
Why should we still remember? Because for 38 years this year, it has brought relatives and friends of those who died to Paulton. The Memorial is famous; it’s unique, unlike any other remembrance service. It is a solemn place of remembrance. The hush when the names of the fallen are read, those 23 young men, is poignant and memorable; they are remembered, together with the families of the twenty-three fallen soldiers. Every year the families join the village and we all remember. Then afterwards the local people meet the friends, the relatives, the soldiers, the children, and it is a happy time of September reunion, on a green hill called Double Hills, and an even happier time later in the village Hall for tea.
Lots of people attend the Double Hills Memorial. The daughters and sons of the soldiers, growing a little older themselves now, but the grandchildren come, the great grandchildren and the family and friends of the comrades. WW2 veterans who used to come but are now taking leave of us, but the story continues and thus double hills never fails to astonish people who attend.
In presenting the award to Peter, Mike Hedges, Chair of the Chelwood Bridge Rotary Club Community Committee said it is with great pleasure that we present to Peter the 2018 Chelwood Bridge Rotary Club Community Award for his outstanding contribution to the community he is so much a part of.
The evening concluded with a very welcome questions and answer session which thanks to Peter brought local history home to all present. In September 2019 members if the Chelwood Bridge Rotary Club will without doubt be joining members of the community in The Arnhem Field for the 40th remembrance ceremony on Double Hill. We encourage all reading this to join us at this land mark event,
