4 June 2014

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

THE High Street flower beds have been planted up to commemorate the centenary of WWI.

The beds have been carefully themed with tributes, which include one to Private Sidney Godley, the first private soldier to win the UK’s highest award For Valour, and the Royal Sussex Regiment.

The wooden barriers draped with barbed wire represent the trenches, and poppies – which became the symbol of the fallen – have been recreated in red flowers.

Unlike many of his comrades in arms, Private Godley, who was born in East Grinstead and is also remembered with a blue plaque on the front of East Court mansion, survived the Great War.

A stone slab will be laid by the High Street War Memorial in his memory on 23 August.

A board by the War Memorial explains the inspiration behind the planting, which has been done by the Town Council.

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