On Friday evening last week I attended a meeting of the Directors of the ‘Step Short’ First World War centenary project, at the tourist information hub in Folkestone’s Tram Road car park. As the Chairman of the project I have been part of a large number of meetings like this over the last six years, where the volunteers who make up Step Short, and who have each given hundreds of hours of their own time to the project , come together to discuss the plans for 2014. I would particularly like to thank Ann Berry, Paul Emden, Eamonn Rooney, Michael George and Geoff Tolson for the huge contribution they have made to Step Short over the years.
When Step Short started in 2007 it did so on a simple premise; that Folkestone played a major role in supporting the effort during the First World War and that we should do something significant to mark the centenary of its outbreak in 2014. The central focus for the project was the Road of Remembrance, the name given to the former Slope Road after the war, in memory of the large numbers of soldiers who marched down it, to the ships waiting to take them to France and the trenches of the western front. Ten million servicemen came through Folkestone during the war, meaning that most people who have ancestors who took part in that conflict, will know there is a good chance that they were in the town during the war.
The programme of events that are in place for next year is already impressive, and will mean that Folkestone will be the major centre for the commemorations in England, outside of London. The significance of Folkestone’s role in the war has been recognised by the Prime Minister, and the Step Short project’s work forms part of the Department for Culture’s official programme of events for the centenary day on 4th August.
The memorial arch that will be built on The Leas standing over the route that so many men took on their way to France is scheduled to be formally unveiled on that day, and we are planning a major military parade along the route to the harbour as part of the commemorations. Significant funding for this has come from both public and private contributions; the arch could not have been built from the donations we have received from our local authorities alone. We have also formed a partnership with the National Army Museum who will be bringing a major exhibition to Folkestone Town Hall that will open in May next year and run for ten months. Guided tours of key sites in the town have been planned, and local hotels are already receiving bookings from people who will be part of these tours. The centenary also gives us an opportunity to make people more aware of Folkestone’s story during the war, and also perhaps the chance to visit other important sites of remembrance, like the military cemetery at Shorncliffe.
I believe that our area’s role in the First World War centenary next year will be significant, appropriate and something of which we can all be proud.