SOLDIERS from Bromyard and the surrounding parishes who fought during the Battle of Passchendaele were remembered during a special parade.

A remembrance day was held in Bromyard where relatives laid 32 wooden commemorative poppy crosses at the cenotaph in the town in memory of the fallen.

Research was carried out by Major (Retd) Jan Brodie Murphy and her sister, Jane Delahay, who discovered that 32 local lads from Bromyard and its surrounding villages lost their lives at Passchendaele in the mud of the Third Battle of Ypres.

As many more were thought to have died, Mayor of Bromyard and Winslow, Fred Clark laid a 33rd cross: on it was written "For A Local Lad."

The Bromyard British Legion Passchendaele Parade and Commemoration ceremony saw 60 people take part in the parade, from legion members to veterans, relatives of the fallen and youth organisations.

Major (Retd) Jan Brodie Murphy said: "It was quite a sight and the townsfolk, shoppers and visitors to the town stopped and watched from the roadside as lone piper Alasdair Cuthbert led them up through the town to the dulcet tones of his bag pipes."

The commemoration ceremony took place on the green outside the Public Hall, the cenotaph was a rugged cross draped with a modern day camouflage net which was covered in swathes of red poppies made out of plastic pop bottles.

Major Brodie Murphy added: "With the help of the Hereford Times we were able to find and locate five living relatives of those who died: Tim and Glenys Amos for William Amos, Paul and Peggy Calder for Leonard Calder, Jane Yelland and her family, Sylvia Garness and family for Thomas Garness, Maureen and Michael Bright for John (Jack) Pugh, Shirley Durnden and family for Alfred Green."

The affiliation of the Bromyard Platoon ACF into the Royal British Legion took place and each cadet on parade was awarded with a badge to mark becoming a youth member of the legion.

A special tea in the hall was prepared by town councillor Gill Churchill and her team.

The Battle of Passchendaele took place in Belgium during the First World War and lasted from July 31 to November 6 in 1917.

An estimated 245,000 Allied and 215,000 German casualties (dead, wounded or missing) fell after approximately 100 days of heavy fighting for a movement of the front line of only 8 km.