Armistice Day Service Funeral in Tring
On Thursday 11th November at 11.30am, St Peter & St Paul, Tring hosted the funeral service for Corporal David Barnsdale, a young man of twenty-four. Corporal Barnsdale, from 33 Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), was killed in Afghanistan on 19 October 2010.
On 19 October, his search team were deployed on Operation OMID CHAR - operating in an area east of Gereshk, working towards the construction of a new checkpoint and patrol base to enhance the security of the local population.
During the task Corporal Barnsdale was caught in the blast from an IED which resulted in his death.
Corporal Barnsdale, from Tring in Hertfordshire, was 24 years old and joined the Royal Engineers in September 2002.
The Rector of Tring, The Revd Huw Bellis, said: " It certainly made Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday more poignant as the reality of war was brought home to us once again, and we remembered all those who have died in previous conflicts. The Royal Engineers have a new tradition of making crosses from shell cases. One of these will be presented to David's family. It is a contemporary version of the Biblical imperative to turn swords into ploughshares. Let us also pray that God will be able to transform the travesty of human conflict into a new kingdom of justice, hope and peace."
Well over two hundred people came to the Armistice Day Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial in Tring, immediately before the Funeral, which was also attended by the Lord Liutenant of Hertfordshire, the Mayor of Tring and the Mayor of Dacorum as well as local MPs.
The funeral service took place in a packed church, with again about two hundred people listening to and joining in with the service outside the church via loudspeakers.
The Rector began the service with this welcome:
"We come here today to remember before God, David.
To give thanks for David’s life; to commend him to God,
to commit his body to be buried and to comfort one another in our grief.
The most important thing that we are going to be doing today is to have the opportunity to say goodbye to David. As we do that we will express our grief. (There is a phenomenal number of people here) – Steve, Wendy, Vanessa and Helen none of us can truly understand your grief, nor can we take it away, but hopefully in some small way, you will feel carried by our love and support today.
Saying goodbye is not easy, and we come with a whole host of emotions – emotions of grief pain, of anger and confusion, of fear and despair. We offer all of these emotions to God, because God alone can absorb them.
Tring is the sort of town where people leave school and whether they get a job, go to university, or join the army they still end up coming back here. It is the kind of place where people grow up together and all know each other. It means that Dave had lots of friends here. I know that there are school friends here, there are even teachers from Goldfield, Bishop Wood and Tring School here. There are friends from football and the Bell. This is where he grew up, it was his home. There are also his friends from the army. There isn’t a distinction – all friends. So as well as grieving we need to celebrate all that was good in his life. We will begin to do that in the service as we start talking about Dave, but equally important as this part of the service is the rest of the day – then you will have the opportunity to share memories with each other. You will each have your own memories and stories, share them. You will need to remember Dave as he truly was, you will need to remember the happy and silly times, and you will need to remember the times the times when he annoyed you intensely – because as you do that you will appreciate the true depth of your love.
Sharing these memories is important because as we do so we begin to understand that a relationship with Dave continues…The memories contain the love which you have, and we begin to realize that love is stronger than death. Although David’s earthly life has ended, his love does not – love is eternal.
It is for this reason that we can also proclaim hope."
The funeral address was given by The Revd Philip Francis CF Chaplain 33 Engineer Regiment.
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