WWI soldiers remembered

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month of 2020, the Executive Mayor of Overstrand Municipality, Dudley Coetzee, took part in a special Remembrance Hour at the Hermanus Cemetery to mark the armistice agreement that ended the First World War.

Many Hermanus residents came to pay their respects and to reflect on the sacrifices of those who bravely served in wartime. Members of the local Seagull Shellhole of the MOTHs and Hermanus resident Melanie Moore, who initiated the project to upgrade the Hermanus cemetery a few years ago, arranged the special assembly for Remembrance Day on Thursday last week.

Cllr Kari Brice, Mayor Dudley Coetzee, Beverley MacKay, war veteran Priscilla Drewe (in wheelchair), Sabina Chinoday, Melanie Moore and war veteran, Rifleman Nigel Goldie (white cap) with the Hermanus Seagull Shellhole MOTHs Shaun Haack, Norman Sander, Peter Goldie, Graham van Heerden, Leon Botha, Stephan Loubser and Llewellyn Tiltman.

Before the official programme started the branch committee and volunteers from Cllr Kari Brice’s Ward 3, as well as learners from Generation Schools Hermanus, planted vygies in their continued effort to beautify the cemetery. Another special touch was the red paper poppies that were cut out and attached to the white crosses on the unmarked graves.

After Melanie’s welcome speech, she quoted the first verse of John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders fields and Liezel Nel played the Last Post on her trumpet. A two-minute silence was observed, followed by André Willemse releasing his racing pigeons.

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