October 2024 - The National Memorial Arboretum. I love this place. It wreaks of honour and respect. Everywhere you look there are stories to be told, but many won’t be, can’t be. Some are just too painful and ‘you had to have been there’ to understand. It as officially opened on 16th May 2001, by Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and according to John Major, the Prime Minister of the time “as a living tribute to service men and women for future generations to reflect upon and enjoy while walking through a beautiful green scenery”. The Arboretum covers 150 acres with over 400 memorials set amongst 25,000 trees and hosts around 250 events every year attended by over 300,000 visitors. One such event, and one of the biggest in its calendar, is the one that takes place today.
Ride to the Wall is now in its 17th year. Only Covid has ever stopped it and let’s be honest, Covid stopped pretty much everything. This year, over 8,000 bikes and trikes were booked in, with more than 10,000 bikers and passengers attending. Today many more are expected to swell that number even further, especially as the weather looks promising, and it’s all managed with military precision - which is no surprise when you consider who organises it, who it’s all about and where it’s all happening.
As the Arboretum grows as does the cost of running it, which, according to The NMA itself, runs at ‘£1,648 to maintain and run our beautiful site during an average visit, that’s around £8 per minute’, which is an awfully cryptic way of saying things, and it’s beyond my level of mathematic capability to work out what that means over a year, but let’s just agree that it’s a lot, especially as everything has to be kept in pristine condition, it’s open throughout the whole year and admission is free. It’s for this reason that Ride to the Wall takes place, as all of the money it raises, goes towards the upkeep. All Ride to the Wall staff are unpaid volunteers, no-one is paid a wage or claims expenses.
With so many people attending, it’s necessary to get there early, plus you get to see all the well-wishers stood at the side of the roads and on the bridges as you drive in, waving excitedly to every bike that passes, showing courtesy, gratitude and respect. Bikes travel to this event from all over the country and from Europe, to pay their respects to those who have fallen and to catch up with friends and colleagues they served with in days past.
At the final roundabout before you turn left to enter The NMA itself, stands Dave, better known to everyone as ‘Blue’ saluting every bike that arrives. He’s done it every year since 2014, come rain or shine. Doing his duty. Playing his part in his own way. Blue is a proud and respectful man.
Ultimately, once inside, everyone heads to ‘The Wall’ as it’s affectionally known, 43m in diameter, 200,000 bricks strong and engraved with the names of more than 16,000 service men and women who gave their lives in the service of the country since the end of the Second World War. Its unique design consists of two curved and two straight walls, strategically placed so that at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh of November, the sun shines through two slits in both the outer and inner walls, casting a beam of light across a wreath laid in the centre.
Today’s service began at noon, when the British Army Band, Catterick, made their way to the top of the Armed Forces Monument and began to play with all the pomp and ceremony that such an event dictates, it’s now that the crowds follow and choose their place at the foot of the staircase ready for the main event to begin.
Today is a glorious day. The sun is shining with a brisk breeze blowing through the trees, unlike a couple of years ago, when it was quite different. Then the rain poured down - and how it did pour - but it didn’t spoil a thing. These people are made of sterner stuff and ‘a bit of rain never hurt anyone’. This year, there was none.
At 12.45, the Flag Bearing Party arrived closely followed by Martin Dickinson, whose idea this all was a good few moons ago now, together with the Padre, Reverend Huw Evans and Philippa Rawlinson and Anny Reid of the NMA. As they pull up on their bikes, in the centre circle at the bottom of the staircase, the giant screens light up to show the masses of bikes that have followed them in and are finally making their way into the grounds some four hours after the first ones arrived.
Shortly after however, the screens change, as does the tone of the day. They start to show images of battles past. All elements of the military in action, doing what it does. The music of Dire Straits serenades the crowd with ‘Brothers in Arms’. Everyone watched, some may even have been there, and tears appeared in many an eye. ‘We could be Heroes’ continues the theme as the British Army Band, Catterick makes its way back up the steps ready for the opening ceremony.
Gari Glaysher performs the first of two songs ‘All Gave Some, Some Gave All' before the families ascend the staircase to lay their own personal wreaths and tributes to loved ones lost, and it’s all done to the strains of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ which could have been written for this exact moment, such is its poignancy. For some the memories are so strong and painful that they need assistance to make the ascent. It is there in abundance and remains so for the decent, some ten minutes later, to the applause from everyone gathered below who’d waited patiently, in silence, whilst the duties were performed.
Once the families had returned, settled back into their seats and their composure had restored, Abi Carter-Simpson and Oliver Moriarty performed their duet, ‘You Are Not Fallen’, this time from within in the Arboretum beside the memorials, before we return to The Wall, where Gari began his second performance of the day with ‘Bring Him Home’.
At 14.00 hours exactly, Piper, Leif Findlay played the lament where every note echoed around the silent arena and, as he headed to the back of the memorial, and the strains slowly faded away, Founder and Chairman, Martin Dickinson, takes to the podium to begin his address. He thanks all the volunteers that have made today happen as well as the NMA and everyone here present as “it would be a lonely time stood here on the first Saturday in October, if you weren’t here”. He also pays tribute to all the names on the Wall and it’s here that emotion gets the better of him and he needs a moment to regain his composure. It is that sort of day and it’s why days like this happen.
Patron, Air Commodore Simon Richardson takes his place at the podium and after giving his thanks to everyone informs us that Ride to the Wall has now raised the unbelievable amount of £1.6m to date. He thanks everyone once again and wishes them safe travels
Philippa Rawlinson welcomes everyone to the NMA and to Ride to the Wall and is happy to announce that “just for once they’ve managed to organise the perfect weather”. She pays grateful thanks to everyone at RTTW and for the contribution they make each year to the upkeep of the NMA which last year alone totalled £160,000.
Padre, Reverend Huw Evans tells of a recent trip to Normandy with his current squadron Three Company, where he met ten Veterans that had actually been there on D-Day. He tells us that during the conversations he had with them, he found it quite sad that no one was actually listening to their stories, and he wondered what would happen to those tales when they’d gone. He then pointed out that every name on the wall behind him had a story to tell, and that they must ever be forgotten either. He invites us to ‘adopt a name on the wall’ and to find out their story as a way of making sure that it doesn’t. Finally, he led those who believe in prayer, before the Exhortation, read by Anny Reid…
‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.’
Then Bugler played the Last Post, which saw everyone’s head bow and then…
Silence.
…which was only to be broken, a minute later, by the Reveille.
Cadet Sgt. White (RMC) then read the Kohima Epitaph…
'When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.'
…before the Padre’s closing words and blessing, and the final performance of the day from the British Army Band, Catterick for the National Anthem.
God Save the King.
The main party then made the of way up the staircase and into the centre of the memorial whilst everyone else waited patiently for a Lancaster Bomber that was due to fly over us a few minutes after 14.00 - but didn’t actually arrive for another ninety minutes, when most people had retired to the Cafe. When it did come though, you knew it because the sound of a Lancaster is unmistakeable - and deafening !
With the Ceremony over, the time came for the individual Regiments to once more lay their own wreaths and to salute those that paid the ultimate price, then a little more conversation and another chance to relive a few more memories before the ride home.
It was a truly memorable day.
Until next year…
In 2025, Ride to the Wall takes place on the 4th of October and you can find more information by clicking here…
You can donate to Ride to the Wall by clicking here…
…and you can find out more about the National Memorial Arboretum, by clicking here…
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