Pictures taken by the Centenary News team recall some of the many events over the past year, marking First World War anniversaries from 1915.
January
The victims of the first air raid on Britain were remembered in the east coast town of Great Yarmouth at the start of 2015. Mayor Marlene Fairhead laid a wreath on the grave of Samual Smith, a 53-year-old shoemaker killed in a Zeppelin attack on January 19th 1915.
Another ceremony followed on January 27th for the second casualty of the bombing, Martha Taylor, in the nearby village of Caister-on-Sea.
April
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, visited Neuve Chapelle to pay tribute at the memorial to Indian troops who played an important part in Britain’s first Western Front offensive of 1915.
Mons
The new Mons Memorial Museum, a converted waterworks remembering the occupation of the Belgian town of Mons in both world wars, was opened in April. Exhibits include the gun which fired the last shot in 1918, donated by Canada.
London
Princess Anne attended the Anzac Day dawn service at Hyde Park Corner on April 25th – the centenary of the Gallipoli landings.
Descendants of veterans took part in a march-past at the Cenotaph following the UK’s Gallipoli remembrance service, attended by Queen Elizabeth, and representatives from the Commonwealth, France, Germany and Turkey.
Gallipoli
Turkey, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also held commemorations marking the Gallipoli campaign. The memorial to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at Chunuk Bair is pictured in October; the Turkish flag is flying at half mast following the deaths of almost 100 people in bomb attacks in Ankara.
May
Irish President Michael D. Higgins led a day of tributes in Cobh, County Cork, to the 1,200 people killed in the sinking of the British liner, Lusitania, by a German submarine on May 7th. 1915
July
Captain Frederick Parslow, the first British merchant seafarer to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the Great War, was honoured with a commemorative paving stone in Islington, North London. Captain Parslow’s great grandchildren, Peter and Andrea Walker, are pictured at the unveiling on July 4th.
August
The last surviving British warship of the Gallipoli campaign, HMS M.33, was opened in a hail of confetti at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, after a £2.5 million restoration.
The ceremony took place on August 6th – the centenary of the last major Allied offensive at Gallipoli. Australia and New Zealand held special commemorative services at the Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair Memorials on the Gallipoli peninsula.
September
The centenary of the sinking of the Lusitania was marked with a reading at the UK’s Merchant Navy Day commemorative service at Tower Hill, London, on September 6th.
Descendants of Lusitania survivors attended the service at the Merchant Navy Memorial. They’re pictured beside the names of the liner’s crew. Cathy Tyrrell (left) is the granddaughter of Avis Dolphin, a 12-year-old who was rescued. Richard Woods (right), pictured with his wife Bronwen, is from a family who had four relatives on the Lusitania, all of whom survived. His mother, Nancy Wickings-Smith, was an eight-month old baby travelling with her parents and Mr Woods’ great uncle.
Ashington, Northumberland
Weeping Window, one of the Tower of London poppy installations now touring the UK for the WW1 Centenary, was displayed at Woodhorn Museum, near Ashington, in Northeast England.
September/October
Dundee
Commemorations marking the centenary of the Battle of Loos, Britain’s biggest Western Front offensive of 1915, were held in both France and the UK in the autumn. Tributes were paid to the thousands of Scottish casualties at a remembrance service in Dundee, attended by Prince Charles and Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
Auchy-les-Mines
Soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland are pictured marching through the streets of Auchy-les-Mines as part of the centenary commemorations in the Loos-en-Gohelle area of Northern France.
London
British Nurse Edith Cavell, executed by the Germans on October 12th 1915 for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium, was remembered at her memorial in London.
November
Big Ben was lit with images of poppies and the names of 1915 battles in a First World War Centenary tribute for Remembrance Sunday in the UK.
All images © Centenary News
Posted by CN Deputy Editor