Archbishop of Canterbury joins RNAS Yeovilton for remembrance

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams joined sailors and Royal Marines from the Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton for the annual Act of Remembrance in the appropriate surroundings of the churchyard of St Bartholomew’s Fleet Air Arm Memorial Church, Yeovilton.

Visiting the Air Station for the first time, Dr William’s watched as platoons of RNAS Yeovilton service personnel marched across the airfield and took their places for the Service in the grounds of the spiritual home of the Fleet Air Arm.

Commodore Paul Chivers, Commanding Officer RNAS Yeovilton said:

“No matter how busy we all are, we need to reflect on the sacrifices made by all of our Service personnel over the years and today we also remember those closer to home, here at RNAS Yeovilton. Squadrons and departments from the Air Station provide ever-increasing numbers of personnel for front-line, operational tasks and servicemen and women from Yeovilton are here today, to commemorate those who have lost their lives, not only in two World Wars, but also in more recent and current conflicts.”

During the Service, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Roll of Honour was read out by the Base Warrant Officer, Warrant Officer 1 Steve Uzzell and detailed all Royal Naval and Royal Marine personnel who have lost their lives from 2010 to the present day. The Act of Remembrance was led by Reverend Tudor Botwood and Reverend Ned Kelly from RNAS Yeovilton and following the two-minute silence Commodore Chivers laid a wreath.

During his Address and taking the text that “No one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend,” the Archbishop praised the “generous risks” being taken by the Armed Forces to make friends of strangers.

He said: “In the last ten years or so the experience of those serving in the Armed Forces of the Crown has been, again and again, taking risks for the sake of strangers. People have been sent to distant parts of the globe and unfamiliar cultures, to in quarrels and conflicts about which we know very little.

“And the Armed Forces have been asked to go to these places and take exactly the same risks that they would take for comrades, for family, or for country. That’s become one of the most complex but also one of the most extraordinary things about military service in our generation. Our Forces have taken risks for the sake of strangers.

“They take risks not because people are friends but in order that they might become friends. Our Forces have been at war not only in the great theatres of Iraq and Afghanistan but in many other places too in order to make friends in order to bring harmony and trust between people in an age of deep anxiety and instability.

"Friendship doesn’t just happen. It happens when we sense in somebody else someone we can trust. There can be no greater token of trust awareness than being willing to take risks, so for our servicemen and women to take these risks in distant places for people we might regard as strangers is one of the most effective tools there could be for building friendship.

“That requires an enormous and unusual amount of commitment. Commitment to a vision of a world that might be and is not yet. A world where it is possible for the stranger to become a friend. It requires a deep vision of what human beings may become and are not yet.”

As a poignant reminder of the sacrifices that have been made by members of the Fleet Air Arm, the Swordfish aircraft from the Royal Navy Historic Flight flew past the churchyard as the bugler finished the Last Post.

Rear Admiral Terry Loughran, Chairman of the Fly Navy Heritage Trust, said:

“St Bartholomew’s holds a special place in the hearts of all FAA personnel, past and present. It is part of our heritage and we are the custodians; where better to remember our fallen.”

Service personnel were joined by many of the civilian employees from the Air Station together with children from Hazelgrove, Chilton Cantelo and Ilchester schools and members of the village community.

Talking in St Bartholomew’s Churchyard after the service the Archbishop said he had come to Yeovilton because: “It’s a really special place. It is not just that it is a centre of the Fleet Air Arm but also this beautiful church is a memorial to all that the Fleet Air Arm has contributed, so I am very glad to be here.”

After leaving the Fleet Air Arm Memorial Church, Dr Williams was taken on a tour of the Air Station visiting the Air Traffic Control tower and 845 NAS where he met naval personnel that have recently returned from operations in Afghanistan.