An exhibition will be held on Thursday 30 June from 10 am – 4 pm in St Michael’s, Reepham, to highlight some of the men who went to war from the Reepham area.
 
Everyone is welcome to see what information has been collected and to talk about family connections with those who fought in both the First and Second World Wars.
 
Meanwhile, at 7.15 am on Friday 1 July there will be an hour’s vigil and two-minute silence as the country remembers and commemorates the start of the Somme Offensive.
 
The final plan is yet to be decided, but the two-minute silence at 7.28 am will commence with a five-second whistle blast similar to the call to go “over the top” at the start of the first day of fighting.
 
If you would like to be part of a town-wide plan to start the two-minute silence, please contact Ron Luton-Brown (details below).
 
Of the more than 30,000 men who died that day was 24-year-old Sidney George Eglington (pictured) from Reepham, who was in the 8th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment.
 
Further information on Sidney is currently sketchy. He was born in autumn 1891 in Whitwell Street to Frank and Elizabeth Eglington, and in the 1911 census was a labourer on a farm. He is remembered on the Theipval Memorial, as well as memorials in St Michael’s, Reepham, and the Bircham Centre.
 
He, along with the others who lost their lives during the Somme and Great War, is remembered in a Book of Remembrance in St Michael’s chancel.
 

• Ron Luton-Brown is looking for information on the men listed on these memorials who served in both World Wars. Tel: 01603 871726 or email roninreepham@yahoo.co.uk