Remembrance Day and the 25th Field Ambulance

 

A fantastic turnout in Camborne this morning to honour the town's war dead. An impressive parade led by Camborne Town Band ending at the church where wreaths were laid. Click on this link to hear the Band playing: https://youtu.be/j4S7j0IkYrA

 

Alison Pooley, granddaughter of Dolcoath miner Leslie Pentecost who served in the 25th Field Ambulance with many of his fellow workers under Dr William Blackwood, laid a wreath in memory of the men. In 2018, we revisited the Western Front where the men had served with Camborne Youth Band. The Last Post was played on a 100-year-old bugle brought back by one of the men, Fred Negus.

 

SATURDAY NIGHT FUNDRAISER AUCTION IN AID OF CAMBORNE YOUTH BAND

Corey Williams playing his great great grandfather's bugle brought back from WW1

Power tools, jewellery, kitchen items, restaurant vouchers, fishing/yacht trip, family days out …. Just a few of the fantastic items to bid for this Saturday 24 March at an auction in Barripper, Cornwall, in aid of Camborne Youth Band.

The auction is being organised by Tina Williams, who is leading a fundraising drive to take the Youth Band to the Menin Gate, Belgium, where tens of thousands of fallen soldiers are honoured by a daily ceremony. The Band has been invited to play on August Bank Holiday weekend, a huge honour. Bridging Arts is working with the Band to make the trip happen.

Tina’s son, Corey, is in the Youth Band – and is the great great grandson of Fred Negus, a Cornish miner who went out to the Western Front in 1914 with other men from Dolcoath Mine. The Williams family still has Fred’s bugle and Corey will play it in France during the visit.

“This really is history coming alive,” says Tina. “We need to get the Band out there and raise as much money as we possibly can to make sure that everyone can afford to go.”

If you can't make the auction, you can check out items online by clicking this link. The auction will be at St Michael’s Mount Inn, Barripper on Saturday 24 March, starting at 7pm with playing by the Band. All are welcome. Pasties will be on sale and everyone will have the chance to join in a singalong.

Tina has a fundraising page (https://www.gofundme.com/menin-gate-fundraiser-cyb-jcb) for anyone who can’t make it but wants to make a donation.

For more information, call Ralph Williams on 07737 210871 or email tridds@gmail.com

Camborne Youth Band's race night

Great to see Camborne Youth Band fundraising like mad for their trip to the Menin Gate, Ypres, and the World War One battlefields this August.
It's such a great honour for the Band to play at the Menin Gate - and it's even more exciting as in the Youth Band is the great great grandson of Fred Negus, a tin miner who signed up in 1914 and served at the Front throughout the war. The Band will take Fred's bugle back to the Front: it's currently being refurbished, ready to play.
To listen to Ralph Williams, Fred Negus's grandson, talking about the project, click here. 
Click here to contribute to the Band's travel costs.
Bridging Arts will be travelling with the Band and stage an exhibition at Heartlands, Pool, Cornwall afterwards - to display archival material and 21st century reactions to such historic sites. Watch this space.

Camborne Youth Band to the Menin Gate - interview on BBC Radio Cornwall

Great to go to BBC Radio Cornwall for an interview with Ralph Williams on Debbie McCrory's afternoon show.  Click on the link below to listen....

We're working with Camborne Youth Band in the next stage of our project Heart of Conflict, looking at people's memories of World War One in Cornwall 100 years on from the conflict.
All sorts of exciting discoveries have recently emerged: the great great grandson of Fred Negus (a Camborne man who served throughout the war) plays for Camborne Youth Band.
The Band has been invited to play at the Menin Gate at Ypres, Belgium, this August - a huge honour.
And they will take Fred Negus's bugle (brought back safely from France) and play it.
We're just helping to launch a fundraising page to help cover the band's costs. For more information, click here.

West Briton reports on our Heart of Conflict exhibition

Some things in the world don't change much, and coverage in the West Briton newspaper (print version), despite the power of the Web, still means a lot locally.
So it was great to see an article today, as we officially launch our Heart of Conflict exhibition, on one of the stories that we've featured.  Camborne Rubgy Club sent a ball out to the Front at the start of the War and soldiers from Cornwall and Devon played three matches.
We tracked down two of the grandsons of those who played: Chris Negus (grandson of Fred Negus) and Derek Head (grandson of Fred Head).
The article also mentions the fact that we discovered Fred Negus was recommended for his bravery, and was a prisoner at the end of the war. His family had been unaware of this.

War graves at Tuckingmill Church

It is a grey day.
Continuing our survey of wartime graves, we visit Tuckingmill Church. We believe that Fred Negus is buried here (Fred served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the war and was a miner at Dolcoath) but we fail to find the grave.
There are in this graveyard a remarkable number of war graves, mostly from World War Two.















This one is from World War One. The design of these war graves is simple and striking: is it by Lutyens? To be researched.

A visit to Beacon and photographs from the Front

A very exciting visit this afternoon to Beacon to visit Chris Negus, the grandson of Fred Negus who played in one of the three rugby matches on the Front - between Cornish and Devon soldiers.
Chris has photographs and also a bugle brought back from his grandfather from the war.
Fred Negus died in 1941 at the age of 58. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was badly gassed: Chris believes this contributed to his relatively early death.

We will be displaying this bugle in our exhibition, Heart of Conflict, opening at the Cornish Studies Library, Redruth on February 17 2015.