{"id":38162,"date":"2014-01-25T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T09:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=8529eb2297aaa0a24f8ea342c1bdf787"},"modified":"2014-01-25T09:31:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T09:31:00","slug":"press-release-eric-pickles-announces-last-post-tribute-at-first-world-war-battlefields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=38162","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Eric Pickles announces Last Post tribute at First World War battlefields"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Communities Secretary Eric Pickles today (25 January 2014) announced the launch of the Last Post, a mass participation music project for 300 communities in each year of the Centenary from 2014 to 2018. On a visit to the battlefields of Belgium and France he paid his own respects to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in the First World War. <\/p>\n

For a fortnight either side of Remembrance Sunday, 300 communities across the country will research their own local First World War heritage and hold musical recitals in schools, libraries, places of worship and community centres, where they will share stories, local memories and testimony.<\/p>\n

Volunteers at each event will play the Last Post on new arrangements of the traditional bugle and trumpet call. \u2018Last Post songbooks\u2019 will also offer traditional music from the era including the widely known trench songs such as \u2018Pack Up Your Troubles\u2019, \u2018Keep the home fires burning\u2019 and \u2018Take me back to dear old Blighty.\u2019<\/p>\n

2014 will mark 100 years since the start of the First World War. To honour and remember the lives of those who served in and were affected by the war, the government is leading a national centenary programme of ceremonial events, cultural activity and education.<\/p>\n

Speaking earlier this week when attending the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, which commemorates the British and Commonwealth dead at the Battle of Ypres, Eric Pickles said:<\/p>\n

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Each evening crowds gather under the Menin Gate to hear the final salute to the fallen, played by the buglers of the Last Post Association.<\/p>\n

The poignancy of the Last Post is something that everyone in Britain recognises as a way of remembering those who lost their lives in war in service to this country fighting for liberty.<\/p>\n

This is a fitting time to bring that music back home, closer to the heart of communities and use it to remember the remarkable role so many local people played in the First World War.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A number of communities are planning Last Post musical events next month:<\/p>\n