Bangor Rotary Club President Paul Hatty (right) along with Trevor Parkhill (left) the guest speaker at the Rotary Remembrance Service, World War Two Veteran, Morrell Murphy, and the Club’s Past President, Bill Aiken, who organised the Service take their places behind a World War One Vickers Machine Gun.
Bangor Rotarians marked Armistice Day with a special Remembrance Service at the Somme Heritage Centre.
More than sixty Rotarians and guests paid a moving tribute to all those who lost their lives in the two World Wars and other conflicts.
The Service of Remembrance was opened by the President of the Club Paul Hatty who welcomed everyone by saying:-“We do not come here out of some nationalistic pride or triumphalism, nor do we come to glorify the process of war. We come to honour those who through the service of their country gave the ultimate sacrifice, specifically in the First and Second world Wars but also those who continue to do so in conflicts all over the world”.
A passage of scripture was then read by Past President John Birch before the Words of Remembrance were spoken by Morrell Murphy, a World War Two veteran.
As a young rating Morrell served on HMS Exeter during the Battle of the River Plate off the coast of South America in 1939 when the much feared German pocket battle ship, the Graf Spee, was so severely damaged that it had to run for cover into the river estuary and was eventually ordered to be scuttled by its captain.
In 1944 he was on board HMS Capel when it was hit by a German torpedo and sank in the English Channel. His family in Lisburn received a telegram and a letter from the King to say that he was lost at sea but much to the surprise of his new wife, mother and father he turned up safe a well a few weeks later. In fact Morrell had been rescued from the water by an American vessel and brought to hospital in Cherbourg .
Before the two minutes silence the Last Post was sounded by Bugler Brian Hall.
After the Act of Remembrance had concluded Trevor Parkhill, now retired from the Public Records Office, gave a talk on the life of Emma Duffin, a Belfast Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurse during the First World War.
Using her own words from her diaries he gave a moving account of the time she had spent nursing both British and German soldiers in hospitals in Egypt and northern France.
President Paul Hatty thanked Past President Bill Aiken for organising the event.