ON behalf of the Church of St John the Evangelist, Accrington, and the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, I would like to invite readers to the memorial service for the 11th (Service) Battalion (Accrington), The East Lancashire Regiment, "The Accrington Pals" at St John's at 2.45pm next Sunday.

The service will commemorate the events 85 years ago, when the Pals Battalion held their valedictory church parade at St John's Church and left their home towns on February 23, 1915, eventually journeying to the Somme region in France, where on July 1, 1916, the majority of the battalion were killed or injured.

Corporal SHELLEY WHITEHEAD (The Lancastrian and Cumbrian Volunteers), Station Road, Great Harwood.

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