THIS weekend’s Remembrance services will take on a special poignancy 100 years after the start of the First World War.

Thousands across Dorset and the New Forest will take part in acts of remembrance this Sunday, with more events planned for Tuesday, November 11.

At Poole, where 1,000 people took part in last year’s service at Poole Park, mayor Cllr Peter Adams is urging people to join in to commemorate the sacrifices made by the armed forces.

He said: “We are proud to remember and honour the Poole men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for us and for their country.”

Among those taking part in the parade will be serving military personnel and veterans from conflicts including D-Day and the more-recent Afghanistan campaign.

Also present will be the crew of HMS Cattistock, Poole’s own warship.

The parade, led by the band from Poole Sea Cadets, will march through the park to the war memorial, where the service will begin at 10.50am, led by the Mayor’s chaplain, Canon Antony MacRow-Wood.

There will be no vehicle access to the park from 6am-1pm.

At Bournemouth, a parade of veterans, forces’ organisations and cadets will march from Exeter Crescent, through the Square to the war memorial in the Central Gardens. The youth contingent will start parading at 10.35am and the adults at 10.40am. Following the two-minute silence at 11am, there will be a 40-minute service followed by wreath-laying.

Last year, the town became one of the first in the country to include a humanist contribution alongside Christian and Jewish elements of the service.

Christchurch hosts three services on Sunday, starting with a wreath-laying at Purewell Cross Memorial at 9.15am.

At 10am, councillors and officers will join the Royal British Legion Parade outside the Old Town Hall in the High Street to process to the Priory Church.

There will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance at 10.15am followed, at 10.50am, by a service in the Priory Church.

At 2.50pm, the vicar of St Mark’s Church in Highcliffe will lead the choir and the Civic Party from the church hall in Hinton Wood Avenue to the War Memorial at the church, where a wreath-laying ceremony will take place at 3pm. This will be followed by a Memorial Service in the church at 3.10pm.

Wimborne’s Remembrance parade begins from the Royal British Legion clubhouse in West Borough at 2.40pm, with Wessex Marching Band leading the way. A service begins in the Minster at 3pm.

Swanage’s Remembrance parade will be ready at 2.15pm outside the Mowlem Theatre, before processing along Institute Road and Kings Road to St Mary’s Church for a 3pm service.

At 4pm, there will be a short service at the war memorial, led by Canon John Wood, team rector of Swanage and Studland.

West Moors will host a parade and service at 10.30am, while Ferndown’s parade – including the Dorset Military Vehicles Group and their uniformed living history unit – sets out at 2.30pm for a service at St Mary’s Church.

New Milton’s Remembrance day event is at the War Memorial at New Milton Recreation Ground from 10.45am, and afterwards at the New Milton Memorial Centre in Whitefield Road.

Wreath-laying, poppies and parade

CHRISTCHURCH will host three Remembrance Sunday events on November 9.

The first is a wreath-laying service at Purewell Cross War Memorial at 9.15am.

At 10am Christchurch councillors and officers will join the British Legion Parade outside the Old Town Hall in the High Street to process along the High Street and Church Street to the Priory Church. There will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance at 10.15am followed, at 10.50am, by a service in the Priory Church.

In the afternoon, at 2.50pm, the Vicar of St Mark’s Church in Highcliffe will lead the choir and the Civic Party from the church hall in Hinton Wood Avenue to the War Memorial at the church where a wreath-laying ceremony will take place at 3pm. This will be followed by a Memorial Service in the church at 3.10pm.

Free parking will be available in the Priory car park, Wick Lane car park and Bargates car park from 8am to 2pm and in the Wortley Road car park in Highcliffe from noon to 4pm on Remembrance Sunday.