Bedworth, 'the town that never forgets', holds the Armistice Day parade it has staged since 1921

Thousands of people lined the streets of Bedworth on Armistice Day as the Warwickshire town, known as "the town that never forgets", held the remembrance parade and service it has staged every year since 1921.

The parade made its way through the town on Wednesday 11 November before crowds gathered at the war memorial for a service, BBC News reported. Veterans and serving members of the armed forces were joined by police cadets, Brownies, Scouts and families of all ages.

A tradition more than a century old

The parade was started in 1921 by a local schoolteacher, Alfred Lawrence, one of the founders of the Bedworth branch of the Royal British Legion. It continued through the Second World War, with organisation passed from veteran to veteran over the decades. By 1996 it had grown so large that a specialist committee was set up to run it.

Today the event commemorates the dead of both world wars and honours those who have given their lives in conflicts since. The town usually welcomes more than 7,000 people, and this year's parade was also streamed live online.

"A day for our young people"

George Finch, leader of Warwickshire County Council and a Bedworth councillor, said the tradition would never fade. "It's a tradition that I don't think as a town we'll ever give up, no matter how old people get, no matter the hundreds of years that pass," he said.

"This goes on every single year and has done for a long, long time, and for me it's a day for our young people especially... for them to understand what it means to remember."

He remembered lining up with a wreath as a child, and said his great great grandfather, George Bower, fought and died at the Battle of the Somme, adding that "the whole family always came and will always come". "We need to keep pushing at this because this is what keeps people remembering."

Keeping it going

The event costs about £25,000 a year to put on. Ken Whitehead, chairman of the organising committee, said he was proud the tradition continued and that young people were its future. "They have got to carry this on," he said. "We try to keep the kids involved, we do little quizzes for them and we give them something to do."

The committee is now looking at new ways to raise money as fewer people carry cash for the collection boxes, with contactless payments replacing pennies.

Remembering across the region

Armistice Day is traditionally marked with a two-minute silence at 11am, and it came three days after Birmingham's own Remembrance Sunday service on Colmore Row. Bedworth's story is a reminder of how much these traditions depend on local volunteers, and of the part every community can play in making sure the names on its memorials are never forgotten.