Mayor to lead D-Day 80 commemoration
An event is to be held in St Albans City Centre on Thursday 6 June to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Everyone is welcome to attend to pay their respects to those who took part in the landings on the Normandy beaches in 1944 and the battles that followed.
St Albans Mayor, Councillor Jamie Day, will lead the commemoration at 9am at the War Memorial on St Peters Street.
The Town Crier, Stephen Potter, will introduce the Mayor, who will lead a minute’s silence in honour of the D-Day heroes.
Throughout the day, the Union flag will be flown from the roof of St Albans Museum + Gallery.
In the evening, as darkness falls, the Mayor will attend a beacon lighting at the village green by Highfield Park Centre at 9.15pm.
Beacons will be lit across the country at the same time including at Harpenden Common.
In London Colney, the subsidised lunch club at the Caledon Community Centre will have a D-Day themed lunch while the anniversary flag will be flown at the war memorial.
In the countdown to Thursday 6 June, pipers have been playing in various locations across the UK.
George Carr, a local piper, will be at Hatfield Road Cemetery at 11am on Thursday 30 May. Everyone is welcome to join the Mayor and piper Graham at his event, too.
The cemetery contains a Second World War graves plot and around 79 people who lost their lives during the conflict are buried there.
The Mayor said:
The 80th anniversary of D-Day is a time when we will come together as a nation and I am sure people throughout the District will want to mark the occasion.
They are all welcome to come to the event we will be holding on Thursday 6 June at the War Memorial as well as the beacon lighting in the evening.
It will be our way of saying thank you to the veterans of D-Day whose heroic service liberated Europe from Nazi tyranny, ensuring our peace and freedom.
You can find more about D-Day celebrations on the Government’s commemoration website.
Contact for the media: John McJannet, Principal Communications Officer, 01727-819533, john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk.