TOCH CELEBRATES AN ANNIVERSARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19247, 8 December 1930, Page 7

TOCH CELEBRATES AN ANNIVERSARY.

LIGHTED LAMPS NOW ENCIRCLE THE GLOBE. Telegraph—Copyright.) (United Press Assn.—By Electric LONDON, December 6. A world chain of light commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the birthday of Toe H. was inaugurated yesterday at Talbot House, Poperinghe, where the chapel in the upper room has been restored to its wartime condition with the shell-marked harmonium and the original Prie Dieu, at which 2.5,000 soldiers received Holy Communion. P'orty-five ex-soldiers, who were among the originato/s of Toe H, went to Poperinghe yesterday morning and visited the Menin Gate where Padre Claj-ton, at nine last night, lighted the symbolic lamp. Simultaneously, a thanksgiving service was held in St Paul s Cathedral, where a lamp was lighted in silence, after which links travelled westward and lamps Were lighted at the same hour until a circuit of the globe had been completed There was a mass meeting of 7000 men at the Albert Ilall at nine o’clock to-night, when Padre Qayton’s message signalling the completion of the chain was broadcast to the world. Lord Stonehaven represented Australia, and the German and American Ambassadors were also present. Those who returned from the ceremony at Poperinghe received a deafening welcome. The Rev T. P. Clayton read greetings from the Prince of Wales. He traced the trail blazed by lights, via Ireland, the West Indies, both Americas, Australia, China, India and South Africa. Then fifty unlit lamps, headed by the Prince’s perpetually burning light, were borne in procession and lit from the Prince’s lamp, after which all other illumination was quenched, leaving the fifty lamps burning in the centre of the hall amid a hem of surrounding darkness. The whole gathering echoed Mr Clayton’s quotation of Binyon’s lines, ending: “We will remember them.” A minute’s silence was then observed. Similar gatherings were held at Nottingham, Gloucester, Newcastle, Cardiff and Belfast.