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Last Post for Leigh-Mallory in France |
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The Assistant Musical Director of Astley Youth
Band, Chris Harrison, has been invited to play the Last Post and Reveille at
a ceremony in France to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the death of Air
Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, the wartime RAF leader. The ceremony, on 17th October, is being held in the tiny alpine village of Rivière d'Allemont, on the mountains above which Leigh-Mallory's aircraft crashed during a violent snowstorm in November 1944. His body, along with those of his wife and crew, is buried in the village cemetery. The commemoration is being organised by the Franco-Brittanique Association of Grenoble and amongst the official guests will be two surviving relatives of Sir Trafford and the Air Attaché from the British Embassy in Paris representing the RAF. Astley Youth Band was invited to send a representative following its extremely successful concert tour of the French Alps last July. Unfortunately the ceremony falls during term time which makes it impractical for one of the youngsters to attend. British Airways is kindly providing a ticket on its daily flight from Manchester to Lyon which has enabled the band to send Chris Harrison to play these important solos. The ceremony will consist of a short religious service in the chapel followed by the laying of wreaths, the Last Post, two minutes silence and Reveille. After the ceremony the guests will be hosted at an informal reception organised by the Mayor of Allemont. The entire ceremony is being video-recorded by Manchester television production company, PHP, which has a production base in Grenoble. It will form an integral part of a new television programme that the company has been commissioned to produce for the Maison de l'Eau d'Olle, the local authority covering that part of France. |