IN THE year that the UK will mark the centenary of the end of one of history’s deadliest conflicts, Oxfordshire’s ex-servicemen came together to remember the county’s fallen soldiers.

The first turning the pages ceremony of 2018 was held in the Military Chapel of Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday.

Twenty names of personnel who served with the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars and the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and were killed in the First or Second World War were read out.

A page from the Book of Remembrance was then turned in its glass case before the Last Post sounded and those present bowed their heads for two minutes contemplative silence.

Organisers are hoping that the long-running ceremony, which takes place several times a year, will take on an extra poignancy as the country commemorates the end of the First World War.

Major Terry Roper, the chairman of the Oxford branch of the Royal Green Jackets Association, said he was hoping to organise a special evensong service at the cathedral to mark 100 years since the end of the war which killed approximately 18 million people.

On Saturday the names read from the First World War were Frederick Cox, Joseph Bailey Cross, Christopher Theodore Cunnington, Christopher James Dale, Frank Bennett Dallow, Richard Percy Buxton, Anthony Hepburn Edwards, Francis John Liddell, Ernest Albert Moon and Frank Randall.

Maj Roper said: “It was the first worldwide conflict and the casualty rates were huge.

“The young men were from all backgrounds, it could have happened to anybody.

“They went over there to do their job and so many didn’t return.

“You had two vast armies fighting each other, it was the first time we saw how deadly modern weapons can be.”

The soldiers from the Second World War who were honoured were George Cross, John Dyason, James Gee, Victor Lewis Green, Ronald Cecil Brooke Greville, Fred Butterworth, Percy Johnson, Eric Arthur Miles, James Henry Rider and Arthur Crawford White.

Sergeant Major Roy Stephens, who served in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, helped to read out the names.

He said: “We should always be aware of the sacrifice made by these people to give us what we have today, it is so important we never forget.

“It was quite emotional for me, all these names represents somebody who has given the ultimate sacrifice.

“In this year of all years we have got to remember that.”