Tenbury community holds D-Day 80 commemorative events

The Herefordshire town’s council joined forces with St Mary’s Church and the Tenbury Branch of the Royal British Legion (RBL) to host their commemorative events for the largest seaborne invasion in history.

According to the Imperial War Museum (IWM) website, “the statistics of D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, are staggering.

“The Allies used over 5,000 ships and landing craft to land more than 150,000 troops on five beaches in Normandy,” and in doing so “ultimately convinced the German high command that defeat was inevitable.”

Bell ringers tolled for remembrance in Eastham (Image: Celia Adams)

To pay tribute to the monumental achievements of this history-making operation, Tenbury held a few of its own commemorative events. One of the events was a memorial beacon lighting ceremony at the Civic Gardens on D-Day’s anniversary itself.

Music was provided by the Tenbury Town Band and free refreshments were offered to all of its attendees, who would then be invited to participate in a drumhead service led by Rev Mark Inglis. The commemorative beacon was lit after the service.

Stuart Ward lit the beacon near Tenbury (Image: Celia Adams)

Elsewhere, bellringers at Eastham marked the day by tolling the church bells, while Stuart Ward put the torch to a beacon at Hanley.

A D-Day family fun day was also held at the Burgage on June 8. The event ran from 12 to 5 pm, with food, drinks, an assault course, a climbing wall, garden games and a balloon blaster all on offer.

Additional entertainment arranged for the day included music, choirs, cadet drill displays, a youth football tournament, a rowing challenge, drama, and a performance from Tenbury’s Regal Community Theatre of ‘Dad’s Army’.

St Mary’s Church Fete ran simultaneously to the fun day, and so gave the community a good selection of activities to engage with throughout the town.

Furthering the powerful statistics surrounding ‘Operation Overlord’ itself, the RBL say that “by the end of D-Day there had been 10,000 allied casualties.” A Tenbury Town Council spokesperson said they hoped their beacon lighting and fun day contributed to marking D-Day’s anniversary, whilst honouring the service and sacrifice of the brave people who risked and, in many cases, gave everything they held dear to restore our freedom and peace some eighty years ago.