100th Centenary of the Battle of the Somme
Members of the school worship council attended St. Elvan's yesterday and participated in a service to commemorate the 100th Centenary of the Battle of the Somme. Pupils read a series of prayers, poems, Bible readings and war stories to the congregation and relived some of the horrors of warfare, which has been described as the 'bloodiest day' in the history of British Warfare. Pupils from Town Church Primary also participated in the service and sang a collection of songs about War and Peace. Both sets of pupils then represented their schools at the Cenotaph to remember the soldiers who lost their lives from Aberdare at the Battle of the Somme. Below is the poem 'Dreaming' which was read out by one the pupils.
Mr Hollidge
Curriculum Leader of Religious Education and Worship
Dreaming (Somewhere in France)
This place is just behind the line
Three kilometres, or more
Where in the summer eve I dream
While the cannon shells do roar.
My dreams are of a distant land
To me there's none so fair,
My Cymric home across the foam,
My heart is ever there.
Some say 'Berdare's a dirty town,
And maybe they are right.
But I would give the whole of France
To be back there tonight.
Pte Brinley Rees
Son of Mr and Mrs J Cynon Rees
(Aberdare Leader, 30 September 1916)
