Veterans from Royal Star & Garter have marked Remembrance at the Cenotaph and with services in its Homes.

On Remembrance Sunday, 8 November, residents attended the National Service of Remembrance, and attended services at each of the charity’s Homes on Armistice Day (11 November).

The services at the Homes featured the two-minutes’ silence and the Last Post, hymns and readings, and was attended by military visitors, local mayors and cadets.

Royal Star & Garter provides loving, compassionate care and support to veterans and their families living with disability or dementia, from Homes in Solihull, Surbiton, High Wycombe and Worthing. The charity also runs services reaching out into the community including Day Care, Lunch Club and a national Telephone Friendship Service.

Residents from its Surbiton, High Wycombe and Worthing Homes attended the service at the Cenotaph. Attendees included 39-year-old Iraq War veteran Stephen Vause, who suffered severe head injuries in a mortar attack while serving in Basra in 2007. He has been receiving 24-hour specialist care at Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton since 2015. Steve Boylan, from the Worthing Home, marched along Whitehall with his father Peter. Both men served over 20 years with the Royal Engineers.

Ken Pusey, a 100-year-old WWII veteran, was also part of the BBC’s TV coverage on the day, having been interviewed a few weeks earlier at the High Wycombe Home.

In the run-up to Remembrance residents took part in a variety of activities, including poppy-based arts and crafts which were used to decorate the Homes.

In Worthing, residents made over 1,000 paper poppies, in the traditional red colour and also purple – which commemorates animals that served, suffered, or died during military conflicts. The display, which included crocheted poppies made by volunteers, ran along the Home’s Wellbeing Hub to reception. On Armistice Day, relatives of residents past and present were invited for a coffee morning at the Home, before attending the service.

In High Wycombe, residents attended the Festival of Remembrance concert at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday (7 November). They also visited the Standing with Giants art display, which honours military personnel and veterans, at Waddesdon Manor. Within the Home, a residents’ knitting group produced red and purple poppies which were later put up on display. Members of RAF High Wycombe were among the guests present at its Armistice Day service.

In Solihull, residents had a small service on Remembrance Sunday, before their Armistice Day service. Among the guests at the second service were the Mayor and Mayoress of Solihull, and military nurses and healthcare assistants from the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

At Surbiton, residents made poppies during arts and crafts sessions in the run-up to Remembrance. Cadets from the 1034 (Surbiton & Esher Squadron) and corneter Ivan Gideon from Surbiton Royal British Legion took part in the Armistice Day service, which was also attended by Kingston Mayor Thay Thayalan and his wife. There was music from the Singology choir and the D-Day Dollies.

Each Home was also sent wooden crosses by the Army Benevolent Fund. Royal Star & Garter Army veterans signed messages on the crosses, which were later planted in the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey.

To donate to Royal Star & Garter this Remembrance, go to www.starandgarter.org/remembrance.

Royal Star & Garter is welcoming new residents into its Homes. For more information on this, its other services or to work at the charity, go to: https://starandgarter.org