• 01 July 2016

Bangor Parish bell ringers remember their fallen today

Of all the bell towers in the British Isles, Bangor Parish has the distinction of having lost the most ringers in the Great War, with three killed on the first day of the Somme alone.

The bell ringers at Bangor Parish will remember them and all who fell at the Somme on the evening of Friday 1 July. 

The bells will be half–muffled and will be rung in different patterns or methods appropriate to this sombre occasion. 

Colin Holliday is the ‘Tower Captain’ at Bangor Parish and is a third generation bell ringer.

“We always observe Armistice Day’ says Colin, “but the 1 July 2016 will be particularly poignant for us.

“For a short spell the bells will be rung in “call changes” until approximately 8.55 pm. This is the style of ringing that was practised in Bangor at the time of the Great War and would be familiar to the fallen ringers.

“We will then move into “The Dead Soldiers” whereby the bells will stop one by one, representing the soldiers falling one by one, until a 2 minute silence commences at 9.00 pm.” 

Towards the end of the silence the commemorative verses “When you go home..” and “They shall grow not old..” will be spoken and then a single bell will be tolled for one minute.

There will be no further ringing that evening, and the bells will remain half–muffled for the Sunday Service.

The Bangor Parish Hon Society of Bellringers has a Roll of Honour for those who fell in the Great War and framed photos of those who died in or as a result of wounds sustained at the Battle of the Somme.

Bangor Bellringers
Bangor Bellringers

Lieut. Holt Montgomery Hewitt, 109th Brigade Machine Guns Corps. Killed at the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916

Lieut.
Ernest Hind, 15th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. Killed at Thiepval, 1 July 1916.

Lieut.
Wm. Herbert Hamilton Steele–Nicholson, Royal Engineers. Wounded at the
Somme and died of his injuries in hospital in 1918.

Capt Harris Lee Absolom, 13th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. Killed at the Battle of the Somme, July 1916.

(Lieut. Ernest Henry Hewitt, 4th Battalion King’s Own (Royal lancasters) Reg. Died at the Battle of Festubert, 15 June 1915).