East Lancs cadets retrace Accrington Pals footsteps (From This Is Lancashire)

East Lancs cadets retrace Accrington Pals footsteps

11:00am Monday 6th September 2010 in

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EAST Lancs Army Cadets retraced the steps of the Accrington Pals on the Somme to mark 150 years of the cadet movement.

Forty cadets and eight staff from Haslingden, Accrington and Burnley marked the milestone with a four-day tour that also stretched to participating in the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium.

Famous battlefields such as Thiepval, Tyne Cot and Sanctuary Wood were visited by the cadets who stayed in a chateau outside St Omer, the town from where the Pals disbanded at the end of the war.

Ploegsteert, known to the troops as Plug Street, was also toured.

However the most moving part of the trip was said to be the visit to the Accrington Pals Memorial at Serre where there was a ceremony to lay a poppy wreath.

After the ceremony and a two-minute silence, the cadets stood in trenches where the Pals had stood, before ‘going over the top’ and to their deaths nearly 100 years ago.

Major Paul Smilie of Haslingden detachment, Lancashire Army Cadet Force, said: “It was the highlight of the trip for the cadets.

“The ceremony was followed by those immortal words of Laurence Binyan: ‘They shall not grow old as that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them’ before a two minutes silence was held.”

His colleague Malcolm Ward said: “It was very moving and the cadets were extremely solemn.

“It was an educational trip as much as anything, letting them see what the troops had to put up with. It gave them a new appreciation.”

Next year the cadets are hoping to learn about the Second World War with a visit to Normandy.

The group is raising money for the tour next year. To donate contact Mr Ward on 07801056945.