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News | Remembrance Sunday


downsmail.co.uk


Dignitaries, including MP Helen Grant, wait for their turn to place wreaths at the warmemorial in Maidstone Remembering our fallen heroes


THOUSANDS of Maidstone resi- dents turned out in November sunshine to remember the fallen of past and present conflicts. The streets were lined with peo-


ple, some waving union flags, as the parade made itsway across the bridge to thewar memorial. Serving soldiers, veterans, mem-


bers of the Gurkha regiment, the Scout movement, Air Training Corps and St John Ambulancewere among those taking part. Dignitaries, including Maidstone


and Weald MP Helen Grant and Mayor Derek Butler, laid wreaths during the solemn ceremony on The Broadway.


There was a poignant moment


when double-amputee Gurkha Vinod Budhathoki (31), stepped forward to lay his tribute. Wearing prosthetic limbs, the married father of two (pictured right) needed the steadying shoul- der of another former Gurkha as he laid his wreath. The rifleman lost both his legs


when an improvised explosive de- vice went off in Afghanistan in 2010. He lives in Allington with wife Samita and two daughters. The assembled crowd observed perfectly a two-minute silence at 11am, during a Service of Remem- brance at the war memorial.


Clockwise from above left: a member of the Salvation Army Band; crowds pay their respects; a veteran shields his eyes from the autumn sunshine and members of the Air Training Corps are among those to lower their flags at the memorial


38 Maidstone Weald December 2016


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