Victims of Northern Ireland conflict remembered in Heywood

Mayor Ray Dutton and Mayoress Elaine Dutton with veterans

Mayor Ray Dutton, Mayoress Elaine Dutton and Councillor Peter Rush were amongst those who attended a service of remembrance in Heywood on Sunday for those who died in the Northern Ireland conflict.

The event paid tribute to those who died, including local man Lance Corporal Michael Beswick who was killed aged 21 in an ambush in Armagh in 1993, and also remembered victims of the 1974 M62 coach bomb, where nine soldiers and three civilians were killed in a suspected IRA attack. Of those victims, 18-year-old Fusilier Stephen Whalley came from Middleton.

The Lancashire Veterans Association (LVA) has organised the service in early February for the past eight years, as the coach attack happened on 4 February 1974, while Lance Corporal Beswick was killed on 9 February 1993.

Chairman of LVA, Harry Mills, who is also a veteran of the Northern Ireland conflict, said: “On behalf of the LVA, I should like to express our gratitude to all involved in making the day a suitable memorial and looking after the welfare of those on parade.”

The parade proceeded from the Kings to the Garden of Remembrance in the face of driving snow and arrived there shortly before 1.00pm. Father Alfred Rubello delivered a brief, moving, service.

The bugler played the Last Post and Reveille and a piper played Highland Cathedral during the wreath laying.

The parade then made its way back to the Kings, where the LVA provided the wherewithal to toast absent friends.