The Parish Magazine
August '26
BERWICK ST JAMES
CHURCH NEWS
We are holding two special services in August and everyone is welcome to them.
Our Holy Communion service at 9.30a.m. on Sunday 2nd August is our usual service combined with a special blessing of Douglas Davidson, son of George and Pandora and grandson of Greville and Gillie Bibby. Young Douglas will be celebrating his first birthday on 29th July and his parents wish to have him blessed here at Berwick St James. Please note this is not a christening, which has already taken place. We have not held a service quite like this previously, so it will be a voyage of discovery, but a very joyous one and we are delighted to be hosting it.
On 16th August at 11.00a.m. we have our annual and ever popular Pet service in which we give thanks for much loved animals. Do bring your pets, be they large or small, loud or quiet. It is usually somewhat chaotic, but good fun for animals and owners alike. NO matter if you do not have a pet – come and join in the fun.
Finally, a reminder that our Harvest Supper will be held at the Guide Centre on the evening of Friday 18th September.
BERWICK ST JAMES BARN DANCE!
Poster & QR Code below!
Saturday 8th August
TEA and CAKE and CHAT
We were sorry to have to cancel the Tea and Chat on 7th July, we do hope Christine has recovered and we send our best wishes.
The August Tea and Chats are on Tuesdays 4th and 18th, and the September ones on Tuesday 1st and 15th. We will supply cold drinks as well as tea and coffee, but hopefully the weather will not be as hot in August. We would love to see you.
PLANT PRODUCE and FLOWER TABLE supporting CRUK
Hello villagers and neighbouring villages
All I can say is PHEW!! Hopefully by the time you read this, temperatures will be a bit more normal and we will have had some much-needed rain, I have even lost chilli plants due to excess heat, no I am not making this up! What is doing well in this heat and drought is of course herbs, my Oregano and Marjoram are in full flower and teeming with butterfly, moths and beasties, possibly the way to go is Mediterranean for our pollinators. I do hope you will have a good vegetable harvest if you do grow them, I am thinking of growing mango and pineapple next season, who knows where this climate change is going to take us.
Thank you for your continued support in these hot times. Yours Aye Christine.
LOCAL HISTORY
John Felix Dunbar Kilburn
I wrote about Richard Alexander Saunderson in a recent magazine. His nephew John Kilburn is commemorated on the same plaque as part of our War Memorial.
The Saunderson family lived in Godwins House in Berwick between 1939 and 1951.
When Richard Saunderson senior retired he and his wife Alice moved to Berwick, and their adult children stayed at times.
Mary Saunderson, their daughter, was born 8th August 1907 in Kensington London. She married Felix Bertram Dunbar Kilburn on 13th Oct 1929 in Kensington. Their banns of marriage were published in the 1929 Singapore Gazette as Felix lived in in Singapore.
Mary and Felix had two children, Johnny (born 12th December 1930) and Anthony. Felix died 5th Sept 1937 leaving Mary with two small children. They came to Berwick before 1939 to live with her parents Richard and Alice. Later Mary married Charles Brooke and had two more children Oliver and Thomas.
John Felix Dunbar Kilburn Joined the Royal Artillery in 1949, and was killed in action in Korea at the battle of Imjin River, on 25th April 1951, he was only 20. (He would have been 21 in December). He was buried in the UN Military Cemetery.
His grandparents Richard and Alice both also died in 1951.
Written and researched by Nicky Street with many thanks to Peter Saunderson