For the Fallen remembrance poet buried in Ridgeway village of Aldworth

Many visitors to St Mary’s Church Aldworth seek out the gravestone of poet Laurence Binyon, the author of ‘For the Fallen’ in 1914, which is used worldwide in remembrance of those who have died in war.

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

English poet, dramatist and art scholar Binyon was a Red Cross medical orderly on the Western Front. He lived at Westridge Green in the village until his death in 1943. His daughter, the artist Helen Binyon, who died in 1979, is buried next to his memorial.

The village’s war dead are remembered by a modest wooden cross in the churchyard, brought from France.

There will be Remembrance services at 10.50am on Sunday, November 14 at St Mary’s Aldworth – the service begins outside by the war memorial and continues in the church building after the 11am two-minute silence – and at St Clement, Ashampstead and St Stephen’s, Basildon.