Veterans mark D-Day (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Veterans mark D-Day

LAST weekend was a time of nostalgia and remembrance in Stow-on-the-Wold as the town commemorated D-Day's 60th anniversary.

So many veterans of the Second World War's Normandy landings visited France for the actual anniversary, a week earlier, that Stow's Royal British Legion branch staged its commemorations a week afterwards.

A four-day exhibition of World War II memorabilia, held in St Edward's Hall, proved popular, as did the vintage wartime vehicles displayed in the Square.

Saturday's veterans' lunch, at the Legion's Well Lane headquarters, attracted 100 diners and then crowds of revellers danced to a big band in the Square on Saturday night.

On Sunday, more than a hundred people joined a parade that marched from the Square to St Edward's Church to attend a service there.

There were so many spectators that the police had to be called in to move them out of the way so the parade could form.

Stow Brownies and Moreton-in-Marsh Army Cadets were among groups represented in the parade, although Stow firefighters had to withdraw two minutes before they were due to march off because they were called out to tackle a hay fire at Nether Westcote.

The guests of honour were three Chelsea Pensioners, who marched in the parade and helped take the salute.

Stow Legion's branch chairman, Derek Arthurs, said: "It was a grand weekend and we were lucky with the weather."