Remembrance Week November 2026 in Chiswick

Poppies at Waitrose in Chiswick

Guest blog by Torin Douglas

Support veterans of recent conflicts by wearing a poppy

It’s Remembrance Week and if you’ve been out and about in Chiswick you may have found it hard to miss the poppies – on lampposts, lapels and at many Royal British Legion collecting points.

READ ALSO: Chiswick Poppy Appeal expands collections after raising more than £30,000

READ ALSO: The Poppy Factory celebrates 100 years in Richmond

Last year, for the first time for many years, there were collectors at Turnham Green tube station, as well as the Sunday markets, schools and churches. This year the Chiswick Poppy Appeal team have extended their campaign and you can pick up a poppy at Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and other new venues.

Al Murray collecting at Sainsburys; Poppy sellers at M&S

Remember the dead of the two World Wars at St Michael & All Angels Remembrance Exhibition

Once again the comedian, historian and podcaster Al Murray launched the Chiswick appeal and he’s been joined by members of the Chiswick Sea Cadets, the Chiswick Flower Market team and dozens of other volunteer collectors.

Today, Wednesday 4 November, the annual Remembrance Exhibition opens in St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park. It will be open free of charge every day from 9.00 am, including Remembrance Sunday 8 November, until Armistice Day, Thursday 11 November.

All are welcome to visit, including local school parties and history groups.

In 2014, the centenary of the start of World War 1, we began researching the lives of the 128 names on our war memorials through our St Michael & All Angels World War 1 Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Great Sacrifice – James Clark

Every November since then we have highlighted St Michael’s and Bedford Park’s links to WW1 and WW2 – telling those stories through documents, photographs and other images, keeping memories alive and vividly bringing home the impact of loss in wartime in a residential area such as Chiswick.

READ ALSO: Exhibition commemorating soldiers from Chiswick who died fighting in WWI

This year we are focusing on World War 1 and the events of 1916, remembering those local men who lost their lives at the Somme and other battles, and telling the remarkable stories of several war artists of Bedford Park.

These include James Clark, who rose to prominence in 1914 with a painting entitled The Great Sacrifice, depicting a young soldier lying dead on the battlefield beneath a vision of Christ on the Cross.

Prints were snapped up by churches, schools, and mission halls and it was described as “the most popular painting of the war” with its religious imagery providing “consolation to the families of dead soldiers”.

In 1915, Clark moved to 44 Rusthall Avenue W4 with his family and in 1922 he painted The Salutation, a fresco that is still displayed on the north wall of St Michael & All Angels.

James Clark’s three sons all fought in WW1, including the youngest, Cosmo, who later became a well-known artist like his father. Cosmo volunteered at the age of 17, saw active service with the Artists’ Rifles and was awarded the Military Cross. He drew sketches of what he saw and in 1916 he was injured at the Battle of the Somme.

First World War trench painting by Cosmo Clark

Cosmo’s family kept his war letters and these were published in the year 2000 in a book called The Tin Trunk, Letters and Drawings 1914-1918, compiled by his daughter. It became the basis for a play, Cosmo’s War, written and produced by a BBC producer Bernard Adams.

READ ALSO FROM 2022: ‘Cosmo’s War’ performed at St Michael & All Angels for Remembrance Day

On Remembrance Day 2022, Cosmo’s War was performed as a staged reading in St Michael & All Angels Church, attended by many of Cosmo’s family, some of whom were photographed with the cast. Bernard Adams died this summer at the age of 86 and is remembered in the exhibition.

Women at the Remount Depot Pangbourne – Cecil Aldin

Other Bedford Park artists who are featured include Cecil Aldin, who was well-known for his paintings of dogs and horses. He reportedly kept 13 dogs, two monkeys and a fox cub while living at The Limes, 46 Flanders Road!

READ ALSO: Golden age of children’s books, TV and theatre produced by Chiswick creatives

Too old for active service, he was Major in charge of the remount depot near Pangbourne and developed several Ladies’ Army Remount Units, staffed entirely by women.

READ ALSO: Plaques stolen from First World War memorial bench

Cecil’s son Dudley was killed in action in May 1916 and is remembered on our war memorials.

The memorial bench outside St Michael & All Angels Church; photograph David Beresford

Another local artist remembered in the Exhibition is George Derville Rowlandson, a well-known etcher, illustrator and painter and one of the first official First World War artists. He lived at 22 Priory Road (now Avenue) in Bedford Park and his son Private George Rowlandson was killed in action on October 1st 1918 at the Battle of Ypres.

READ ALSO: Does Chiswick have more artists than it does authors?

These artists are featured prominently in the new Timeline of Chiswick Artists and Illustrators, compiled by the Chiswick Book Festival team with help from many other researchers, including several from the Bedford Park Society and The Chiswick Calendar.

Painting by George Derville Rowlandson

Remembrances services

This year’s Remembrance Exhibition also commemorates David Beresford, a retired doctor who became the church’s archivist and led the St Michael & All Angels Church World War 1 Project.

David died in 2022 at the age of 82. From 2014 till 2018, he created large, illustrated panels which were displayed in the church, highlighting the stories of those who had died in each of the years 1914-1918.

Twenty of these panels are displayed in this year’s Exhibition, including eight devoted to those killed on the Somme in 1916. One features Alexander Robinson, the son of a Churchwarden at St Michael & All Angels, who was also a server in the church. His name lives on in St Michael’s in a plaque on the Bishop’s chair given by his father.

This Sunday 8 November, Remembrance Sunday, many people are expected to attend one of Chiswick’s church services and parades.

At St Michael & All Angels at 9.55am there will be a Choral Requiem Mass in a church full of poppies – knitted, silk, paper and ceramic – before the clergy and congregation process to the Bedford Park Memorial for the Act of Remembrance at 11.00 am, where a trumpeter will play the Last Post and children and clergy will lay poppy wreaths.

At 10.40am the Mayor of Hounslow Councillor Ranjit Gill will attend the Parade from Chiswick Memorial Club to the Chiswick Town centre cenotaph on Turnham Green for the two-minutes silence there.

See Remembrance Sunday 2026 services in Hounslow: Remembrance services

Sea Cadets at Sainsburys