Popular Doctor Bursts the Aisles
At the second event of the ‘Friends of St. Thomas a Becket Church, Huntington’, Dr. Philip Cleland, the well-known former doctor of Kington, held a packed audience listening in rapt attention. He talked of his ten years of pilgrimages as Medical Support to the Royal British Legion and the ‘Not Forgotten Association’, when he accompanied veterans, their families and people affected by past and present day wars, to the battlefields and war graves of the First and Second World Wars.
So many people wanted to attend, extra chairs filled the church and some were disappointed not to be admitted. In particular, the audience felt that the attendance of four former SAS soldiers, who had sometimes accompanied the doctor, was highly appropriate, in view of the significance two days later of the centenary of the beginning of the First World War. Dr. Cleland showed many pictures of his travels, which brought to life the stories which accompanied them. The audience stood in silence as Dr. Cleland said the exhortation, “We will remember them…………….”
A drinks and canapés party was held afterwards where friends met and the evening ended in a very happy mood.