West Ham Parish Church (All Saints) Remembrance Sunday 10th November 2019

This morning I attended yet another beautiful Remembrance Sunday service at the historic 12th Century West Ham Parish Church. I am a local West Ham Ward Councillor but I was there today to represent Newham Council as Deputy Mayor together with Deputy Cabinet lead for Children Service's, Cllr Carleene Lee-Phakoe (who had brought her delightful 11 year old daughter) and our Council's Chief Legal Officer, Daniel Fenwick.

There was soldiers from our local regiment 7 Rifles present and other voluntary groups with a number of former military veterans proudly wearing their medals including Cllr Winston Vaughan,  who served in the British Army during the Aden Emergency.

The Rev’d Canon Alex Summers conducted the service and gave a moving sermon during which he mentioned how he and his young family had visited the graves of his relatives who died in battle during the first world war. He made an important point that will future generations with the passage of time forget what has happened in these Wars?

We all hope not. If we forget how horrible and wasteful war is then it is more likely to occur again (and again).

West Ham Remembrance Sunday Service 2014

This morning I went to the Remembrance Sunday Service in the 1000 year old West Ham Parish Church of All Saints. 

It was beautiful service, well attended with representatives of the British Legion, Church, Army Reserves. Police, Cadets and Newham Council.

Our West Ham MP, Lyn Brown gave the famous Old Testament reading on how nations should ..."beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hocks"...

Afterwards I noticed on the Church memorial plaques that there were 4 men with the surname "Gray" (no known relations) who were killed in the First World War, who were from the "Parish of West Ham". I counted about 400 other names on the two plaques which is a horrendous number of dead from one parish.

There was also a planting of an Oak Tree in the Church grounds by the West Ham Sea Cadets in memory of all those who died in the First World War (see photo collage).

On Tuesday (Armistice Day) I hope to be able to show my respect at the Cenotaph in East Ham Central Park.

West Ham Labour in Church Street "on the knocker".

On Saturday we had a door knock surgery in Church Street, West Ham, E15. 

This is probably the oldest part of the ward. West Ham Parish Church of all Saints is over 1,000 years old. King Henry VIII is reputed to have met Anne Boleyn at the church, Charles Dickens apparently used to set his watch by the time on the church clock and I wonder if founder of the trade union GMB, local Labour Councillor and MP Will Thorne use to attend this church? He was probably I think a non-conformist.

All the properties we visited were either Newham Council social housing tenancies or bought under "right to buy". It was interesting that none of the properties we visited (bar one which was a leasehold) had tenants from Eastern Europe, which suggests it is a lie that people come over to this country and get "Council housing". 

The great thing about door knocking is that you never know what you are going to come across next. Early on I met one resident who is a NHS worker and I hopefully managed to persuade her to rejoin Unison.  

Another was very annoyed about a local parking problem which had taken ages to resolve. When I asked him whether he supported Labour, he looked at me in surprise and said of course he voted Labour!

A heavily pregnant Mum with Partner and 4 kids (one disabled) and another one obviously on the way, all housed in a 2 bed flat, asked for help. She knew that there was a chronic housing shortage and massive housing list in Newham. It turned out that she was having problems accessing the internet bidding system. She just needed some assistance to get on-line. 

There were serious complaints of anti-social behaviour about teenagers sitting on block communal stairs smoking, drinking and frightening residents walking past. This is completely unacceptable and action is needed to try and stop this.  All tenants and leaseholders are directly responsible for the behaviour of their children and their visitors. If they fail to control the behaviour of their children then they need to be held to account for this.

It was also clear that some business premises rented out by the Council were leaving their yards and flat roof areas in a mess. This needs to be cleared up. It will be in their leases to keep these areas clean and tidy.

There were also problems with communal lighting, insecure security doors and fire risks from inappropriate use of storage areas which I will be also taking up with Council commercial premises managers.

When I got home I uploaded the returns on line onto the Labour Party Contact Creator (as well as some other contact sheets that I should have inputted earlier but had been too disorganised).  The sheer scale of overwhelming support for Labour in West Ham ward is stunning but it is also very humbling and not to be taken for granted.

There is a genuine debate in this country about whether "class politics" and "labour  identity" is important or not anymore. I can say with a degree of certainly that yes it is in West Ham ward and in Newham generally. Even in the more expensive owner occupied areas in the ward we still get excellent canvass returns. Why this is I genuinely do not really know. I would like to know - in order to spread the magic for May next year and 2015.

(there was also for no obvious reason a lot of very friendly domestic cats about on Saturday - so I have included them in picture college)

West Ham Church of All Saints Remembrance Sunday Service

This morning I attended the Remembrance Service in the 12th Century Church of All Saints in my ward, West Ham.

The Deputy Lieutenant of Newham, Colonel Mike Dudding, our Mayor Sir Robin Wales and West Ham MP Lyn Brown was present.  As well as veterans, parishioners, residents, 7 Rifles Territorial Army, Sea Cadets, Army Cadets, Councillors and Senior Council officers.

The Church is over a 1,000 years old and is the one of the oldest (or arguably the oldest) building in Newham and lies in in the heart of West Ham Ward.  It is extremely impressive and I would encourage everyone to visit it.  

The service was taken by the vicar, The Revd Stennett Kirby.  He made a particular point of arguing that since in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim tradition, widows and orphans should be honoured, so therefore the spouses and children of servicemen and women who have been killed in recent Wars should not suffer from the Cuts that the Coalition government is proposing  (No comment but check out this BBC link here).

Even though I am a lifelong atheist, as usual, I found the service and the ceremony profoundly moving. 

After the last post and the two minutes silence, Mr Alf Gittings, a member of the Royal Navel Association read out

" They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
  Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
  At the going down of the sun and in the morning
  We will remember them".

To which we all replied "We will remember them"

I did wonder during the service whether Beckton gas worker, Will Thorne, the founder of the GMB trade union and former West Ham Councillor, Mayor and MP, had ever attended a similar service in this very same Church?  I assume he did. During the First World War he had joined the West Ham Volunteer Force with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. His eldest son also joined the army and was killed in action at Ypres in 1917.

There were at least three other remembrance events in Newham today.  Check out my previous post about the 2007 West Ham All Saints service here and Thursday's East Ham Cenotaph ceremony here.

100% 4 Labour

Yesterday evening was a bit of a “red letter” day for me. For the first time ever I went out door to door canvassing and every person we spoke to who voted in elections declared themselves as Labour Party supporters.

Most were more positive than some...but okay, okay - this was in a solid Labour Council ward (West Ham – all three Councillors are Labour) in a safe Labour seat (Lyn Brown MP) and the borough has a Labour Mayor (Sir Robin Wales) and at least 54 Councillors out of possible 60.

It also had the largest Labour majority in the country at the Euro-elections. But I have never ever gone out and knocked on doors and had no-one “Against”, “refusing” to say (usually but not always Against) or a supporter of another political party. I am not going to get too excited about this since tomorrow evenings canvass may well be a different experience. Such is politics. But I think there is message somewhere – the polls do seem to be slowly closing the gap (too slowly) but I do think that the penny is beginning to drop and voters are thinking about what will happen to their jobs, wages, pensions, schools, social services and hospitals if the Tories do get in.

It is too easy to slag off Labour and run down their achievements - sometimes they deserve to be slapped around (e.g. the Posties) but the alternatives to Labour are frankly just too dire to contemplate (see photo previous post).

One thing that did trouble me was when we called at an address where a couple in their mid to late 20’s answered the door (with their young toddler who was making cheerful loud noises and enthusiastically trying all different ways to escape and run out of the door into the corridor) and they explained to us that they had never voted in their lives. They were not at all hostile and seemed quite happy to speak to us but seemed to be a little astonished that we should be calling on them and asking them to vote (for anyone). They were very much the exception but...

A useful reality check.

(Picture of West Ham parish Church, Cllr Bourne with the Ironmongers stone and the various local history information boards placed on the building site boundary walls)

Remembrance Sunday in West Ham

In a contrast to yesterday’s events this morning I attended the Remembrance Sunday service at the historic 12th century West Ham Parish Church of All Saints.

I think, like most people, it is important that we remember today the sacrifices past and present that British servicemen and women have made on our behalf.

Even if you don’t agree with today’s war in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are still ordinary British servicemen and women (and many UNISON members who are military reservists) risking their lives and this is a time to think of them and their families.

There were 4 remembrance services in Newham today. West Ham is a place shaped and still scarred by war. It was of course heavily bombed during the Second World War, killing thousands of civilians. On the church walls there was a standard of a local First World War “Old Contemptibles” association who were decimated in trench warfare. There was also a simple plaque to the Royal Marine bandsmen murdered by the IRA in Deal 1989 with the words “Thank you for the Music”. I assume a local connection? The British Nuclear Test Veterans Association had a newer looking plaque. With the words “All we seek is Justice”.

The West Ham service had local dignities such as Newham Civic Ambassador Councillor Omana Gangadharan present with the Council Mace (and bearer), the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, local Labour MP Lyn Brown, local Labour Councillors (including Councillor Winston Vaughan who I think saw active service in Aden? and Councillors who are Muslims) as well as the council's interim director of “children and young people services” Liz Graham.

There were serving soldiers (in combat uniforms – odd in a church but it’s an honest statement on such a day I suppose) from the local TA unit The Rifles (based just around the corner in West Ham Park). Their web site reports that 140 of their TA comrades based at Reading were flown out to the Helmand region of Afghanistan last month.

The Royal Legion were there, as were the local Sea cadets (some looking incredibly young), and scouts.

The congregation (as well as the TA soldiers and cadets) also reflected the community with many West Indian and African parishioners. The vicar himself, the Revd Stennett Kirby MA was black and he reminded the service of the (often forgotten) valuable contribution made by Black and Asian, Christan, Muslim and Hindu, commonwealth servicemen in British Wars. He pointed out that his own relatives had “proudly” served.

I felt that everyone present identified themselves as British regardless of race or colour. Perhaps we are getting like the Americans where it is argued that “the military” nowadays helps to “unify” that racially divided and complex nation? Not that this is any argument for “war”, of course.

His sermon was a careful balancing act between praising the obvious bravery and suffering of the troops currently at war with his equally obvious Christian abhorrence of war for practically any reason. He encouraged people that as well as praying for peace they should get involved and join political parties since this is where the power lies in this country to change things.

Ironically despite being a convinced atheist I enjoy such occasional religious services especially in historic churches. Maybe its just nostalgia? Being brought up nominally as an Anglican must have had some sort of impact I suppose?

The organ player and the choir were very good. The “Last Post” was played by the organ. I sang (very badly) the hymn “Jerusalem” in very different surroundings from the last time. Its lyrics “nor should my sword sleep in my hand” seemed to be at odds with the previous biblical reading ISAIAH 2 verses 1-5 which famously calls for swords to be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks.

The service ended with the singing the first two verses of the national anthem. The first verse went OK but hardly anyone knew the 2nd verse, so there was a pause and shuffle while we all had to look at the words in order of the service booklet.

All in all, a typically British finish to a very British ceremony.