Special Services | St Mary's Church, Redbourn

Apologies to those of you who have come to this page expecting news of the next Choral Evensong. But read on …

The next choral evening service will be a Choral Eucharist for All Souls with commemoration of the departed on Sunday 6th November at 6.30 pm. The Church of England has no prescribed ‘Requiem’ service, and therefore there is not much choice of music. For the past few years we have sung the beautiful Short Requiem by Henry Walford Davies, and this year Kathy Goodchild has written some music for us.

The Introit sets words from Psalms 139 and 119:

If I take the wings of the morning

and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there Thy right hand shall guide me,

And Thy right hand uphold me.

If I say, ‘surely the darkness shall cover me’

Even the night shall be light around me.

The darkness is no darkness with Thee,

But the light shineth as the day.

The darkness and the light to Thee are both alike.

But Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

The Gradual sets words from Psalm 91 followed by the traditional Latin Requiem Eternam:

Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the most high

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Requiem eternam Dona eis requiem.

Et lux perpetua, luceat eis.

[Grant them eternal rest, and light perpetual shine upon them.]

After the reading of the names of the departed, the choir will sing words from the Book of Revelation:

I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,

‘Write: from henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.

Even so saith the spirit. For they rest from their labours

The music for All Souls finishes with a piece for choir and congregation which will be sung at the end of the service, setting a metrical version of Psalm 23:

The Lord’s my shepherd I’ll not want, He makes me down to lie

In pastures green He leadeth me the quiet waters by.

My soul he doth restore again and me to walk doth make

Within the paths of blessedness e’en for his own name’s sake.

Yea though I walk through shadowed vale yet will I fear no ill,

For thou art with me and Thy rod and staff me comfort still.

My table thou hast furnished in presence of my foes

My head with oil Thou dost anoint, and my cup overflows.

Goodness and mercy all my days shall surely follow me,

And in my Father’s house always my dwelling place shall be.

(‘And in My house for evermore Thy dwelling place shall be’) Amen.

To finish, Jonathan will be playing Bach’s Fugue in Eb BWV 552, the last movement of the monumental Clavierübung Part III and often played at memorial services. The beginning is very similar to the hymn ‘O God our help in ages past’, and therefore in Britain has been nicknamed the ‘St Anne Fugue’ after the hymn’s tune. The nineteenth-century composer Samuel Wesley played it and said it was received by people with the same wonder as when they saw an air balloon rise for the first time!

The service is always very moving; we very much hope you will come and remember your loved ones departed this life.

It is always dangerous to single out a single person – whether in a classroom, a business or an organisation. What about the rest? But forgive me if I do just that, and share something about Len Fisher, a Redbourner typical of so many who gave their lives 100 years ago on the Somme.

Leonard George Fisher

Private, 9821, 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment

Died 12th October 1916, aged 23, Battle of the Somme.

Born in Batford, Harpenden, Hertfordshire

Son of William and Emily Fisher (nee Chapman)

William was a farm worker and Len was the second eldest of six children. He was educated in Harpenden then Ayot St. Peter, and a resident of Redbourn, living at Flamsteadbury until being enlisted at Hertford in 1911 for service in South Africa, before being transferred to Belgium on 7th Oct 1914.

The following article offers an insight into the conditions he faced there:

Herts Advertiser 23rd January 1915

REDBOURN. “Bed’s” Terrible Losses

Redbourn Man’s Account of Very Hot Work

Mr. W. Fisher, jun., Flamsteadbury Farm, Redbourn, has received the following letter from his brother Len, who is in “D” Company, 2nd Bedfordshire Regiment:-

“January 9th. – I am serving with a battalion which all Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire people should be proud of. Our first engagement was at Ypres, where we had it very stiff. Our division was outnumbered by the Germans nine to one, but anyhow, we held them back for three weeks till we got reinforcements up. My battalion was in reserve for the Infantry Brigade, and we had a very hot job to do to keep the other battalions reinforced. We had to advance in daylight under very heavy shell fire, and my platoon and another had to go to the Scots Fusiliers, as they were getting cut up terrible. We reached their trenches all right with only a few casualties, and there was a fine sight to see. The Germans were advancing to our trenches about a half-a-mile off, and they were just like flocks of sheep coming towards us. We were firing rapidly for about two hours, but still they came in swarms, and by this time it was getting dark, and still they were advancing, and they got within two hundred yards of our trenches, and they charged us with the bayonet and we had to retire in to a wood. But we all formed up and did a counter-attack and drove them out of our old trenches at the point of the bayonet. And I must say they are a poor lot of chaps to face the cold steel. I could tell you a lot more, but I have not the time to write. I am sorry to say that all that came out of the firing line of my battalion were one officer and three hundred men out of 1,100.”

He survived 2 years in these appalling and hostile conditions, and having been hospitalised in 1915, he returned to the front in August 1916 and was killed in an attack on Gird Trench near Eaucourt l’Abbaye (Battle of Le Transloy). He is remembered with Honour at the Thiepval Memorial, France and commemorated on the Redbourn War Memorial and on a plaque in St. Mary’s Church.

Will you come and join me in remembering Len and all who gave their lives for our liberty?

Will

With grateful acknowledgement to Jonathan Sinfield (Len’s great-nephew) for the information above

Sunday 13th November

10.50 am THE ANNUAL ACT OF REMEMBRANCE

At Redbourn War Memorial

Members of the uniformed Groups and Organisations will gather at the Cricket Pavilion in order to parade to the War Memorial for the service which will be followed by refreshments at ChristChurch, Fish Street