GROOMSPORT, Co. Down.

The Chairman then asked Major-General Simms, MP, to unveil the memorial, and the cord which bound the drapery of Union Jacks was then unloosed by the Major-General, when the beautiful monument, containing a roll of four score names, was exposed to view. General Simms also offered the dedicatory prayer, while the “Last Post” was sounded by buglers from the Newtownards troop of Boy Scouts.

Address by Major-General Simms.

Major-General Simms, MP, addressing a large assemblage, said by that day’s service they had consecrated a fresh holy spot in their village life, for they had met together, friends and neighbours, with the relatives and friends of their heroic dead, to thank God for the faith and courage of their personal beloved who had laid down their lives in the Great War. Gladly had those men responded the call of battle in the cause of freedom and justice, and their memory was and every should be a holy thing which drew them nearer to God, leading them there to pray together that His blessing might rest with them for ever, and to thank Him Who had crowned their efforts with success, and did not let their men die in vain.

Those heroes were taken – most of them – in the flower of their youth, flushed with health and strength, beloved and loving, with a strong earthly love, full of hope and promise. Most of them, too, were taken unawares in the thick of battle, thinking, as brave men did, not of death, but of victory and of their good cause. Nevertheless they did not doubt that those men died in the Lord.

For what was it that urged a man to love justice, and mercy, to hate cruelty and oppression, to lay down his own life that those who were dear to him might freely and safely live? It was the consciousness of something outside, above, and beyond himself that made for righteousness. It was the quickened sense of human brotherhood; it was the cheerful adoption of the law of sacrifice; it was religion; it was Christ. It was the consciousness of life beyond the world which led a man that was a man at all, to hazard this poor mortality, like his fathers before him, in order to make this world a happier, better place for those who should come after him. Therefore let them think that day of their dear dead – of those men dying that they might live as living immortality; that they died inspired by their sacrifice of all that this world held dear, and made for to stand before Him by Whose precious death mankind was bought without money or without price.

For those whose days were still darkened by the loss of dear ones, it remained only to go forward inspired by the memories of their heroism, their faith and their unselfishness, till their task also was ended and their fight was won.

The buglers having sounded the “Reveille,” a hearty vote of thanks was passed to Major-General Simms, Miss Maxwell, Colonel R D Perceval-Maxwell, and Mr Kinghan on the proposition of Mr Campbell-Gardner, seconded by Mr J Gunning, and the impressive proceedings ended with the singing of the National Anthem.

Newtownards Chronicle, 3 January 1925