On Saturday 26th February the Friends of Darwen Cemetery held a dedication service for the for the placement of the new Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones for Private John Farnhill and Private Squire Haworth.
Between 30 and 40 attended the service on a clear and fine Saturday morning in the Western Cemetery, the service started with the laments played by Gordon Smith starting his walk from on top of the former Non Conformist Chapel site.
Thank you to Revd Terence Young for conducted the service, John East for his reading and Liz Marsland from the CWGC for the reading of the poem “can you remember”.
We then moved to each of the graves to read the testaments, for the grave of Private John Farnhill which is in section 5 in the Cemetery, was read by Albert Gavagan (John’s great nephew)
and for the testament for Private Squire Haworth which is in section B in the Cemetery, was read by Liz Rutherford from Central URC.
The two headstones were placed in the Cemetery by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission during December 2021.
FODC January 2022