Remembrance Sunday Ride 10-11-2024

Meeting up at Louth’s Meridian Leisure Centre for our annual Remembrance Sunday Ride were today’s Ride Leader Tim Newbery along with Ty Harness, Martin Wood, Alan Hockham, Rob Cook and John Rickett who was trying out his Eddy Merckx winter bike. Today’s weather would be very ‘November’ with grey skies, light winds and a chilly 7 Degrees Celsius forecast to rise to a below average 10 degrees.

 

Departing at a quarter past ten so as not to be too early at Fotherby’s memorial but still be in time for the two-minute silence, we’d head along the lanes through Brackenborough and Little Grimsby. We arrived in good time and found that a large number of villagers were in attendance and we were given a warm welcome, some remembering that we’ve been joining in the remembrance service for nearly 10 years. Group Captain Brian Clark (RAF Rtd), poignantly recited Laurence Binyon’s The Ode of Remembrance, ‘They Shall Not Grow Old As We Are Left Grow Old’. Brian also was good enough to come across for a chat before the start of the service.

 

Forgoing the kind invitation to St Andrew’s Church we’d now gear up (literally) for the climb up past North Ormsby (Nun Ormsby). Ty would end up with a determined sprint to the junction with Boswell Road, our highest point of this part of the ride at 415 ft AMSL.

 

We would encounter several groups of cyclists, a horse rider and wildlife to include a hare (good spot Rob), roe deer and a magnificent view of a buzzard.

 

Bowling along we made good time to the Village Hall in Wold Newton where as ever there were plentiful supplies of tea, coffee and cake. Great to see so many walkers and cyclists, including a contingent from Louth Cycle Club. So pleased to have met up with Jason Bartup for a chat. We were informed by the good ladies of the 'Tea Room' that they would next be open for business on Sunday 8th December.

 

Leaving Ty to head to Grimsby for an appointment, our next leg would take us to Click’em Wood and eventually to the former RAF Kelstern. Here the memorial pays tribute to 625 Sqn (Lancaster) and to all those that served and never returned.

 

With a slight backwind, our return to Louth proved uneventful, arriving back at the Leisure Centre about 1.45 pm (half an hour earlier than last year) where John once again kindly provided the coffee.

Tim’s ‘Relive’ fly-through video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vKv2gEy4EoO

Cycling UK’s memorial at Meriden attests to the lasting memory of those cyclists who have been killed in action in all conflicts right up to the present day. The focus understandably has been on the Great War where Private John Parr of the Army Cyclist Corps became its first casualty but the use of the bicycle by British troops goes back to the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

The Boer War was the first campaign where bicycles were used by British troops. It became a testing ground for them, and they proved an extremely useful auxiliary to the horse.

 

British bicycle troops in South Africa during the Great Boer War numbered several hundred, primarily of the City of London Imperial Volunteers (CIV) as well as two battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In general, their major task was scouting, the delivery of despatches and interestingly the transport of carrier pigeons as it was found that carrying them on horseback upset them, whereas they took more-kindly to cycle transportation.

 

Cyclists were frequently inconvenienced by punctures caused by thorns on the rough tracks of the South African veld and it was found that the placing of a piece of untanned leather between the tube and tyre gave some protection. Maybe this tactic could be employed by members of Cycling UK Louth.