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The Veterans Charity

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The Veterans Charity

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Founded in 2008. The Veterans Charity is the immediate needs charity for Veterans facing hardship and distress. Registered Charity No. 1123149

The immediate need support charity for Veterans facing hardship.

06/11/2026

For those who wish to follow our tribute to The Unknown Warrior, here are the planned movements and timings. Please note: timings are subject to weather, traffic, sea conditions and rail operations

Sat 7th:
Visit 'The Cavell Van' at Bodiam Station on the Kent And East Sussex Steam Railway - the carriage was used to transport Edith Cavell following her ex*****on in 1915, Merchant Seaman Charles Fryatt in 1919 and on 10 November 1920, it carried The Unknown Warrior from Dover to Victoria.

Sun 8th:
Travel to Calais with P&O Ferries and then head to Thiepval Memorial to pay respects to the 72,000 fallen who are listed without any known grave.

Travel to Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise, France where, with fantastic support from the Mayor and Council, we will be recreating the moment, using wreaths, when the Unknown Warrior was selected from four unidentified soldiers who had been exhumed from four different battlefields. The chosen wreath will complete the journey to Westminster Abbey.

Mon 9th:
Visit St Pol WW1 Cemetery

Travel to Boulogne Castle where The Unknown Warrior spent his last hours on French soil.

Tues 10th:
Handover wreath to the crews of HMS RANGER and HMS PUNCHER who will convey it back to the UK

On arrival at Dover, carry wreath to Dover Priory Station to board the South Eastern Railway 1824 service to Victoria Station, arriving in time to join the annual ceremony on Platform 8 which commemorates the arrival of The Unknown Warrior

Weds 11th:
The Royal Logistic Corps Royal Logistic Corps Horse-Drawn Heritage will arrive at Horse Guards Parade with their 1915 General Service Wagon and two black horses. Once unloaded, hooked up and with final checks complete, they will depart for Victoria Station. On arrival, our team will load the wreath and then lead with an es**rt vehicle. Our route from Victoria is planned as follows:

Buckingham Palace Road - Hyde Park Corner - Constitution Hill - The Mall - Horse Guards Road. We will then wait at Horse Guards Parade until the road closures have lifted (for Changing of the Guard and the annual ceremony at The Cenotaph).

At around 1250, the Wagon and wreath will leave via Horse Guards Arch and the Tiltyard and proceed along Whitehall. It will stop briefly at The Cenotaph to pay respects before moving on around Parliament Square and down Broad Sanctuary to the Great West Door of the Abbey. It is expected to arrive around 1320.

The wreath will be unloaded and carried into the Abbey for the wreath laying service which is scheduled for 1330.

We are capturing every stage of the event on video and in photos and we will endeavour to share as many as we are able to throughout the journey. There will be a full video released in the days after the event as there is so much more to tell 😊

04/11/2026

Join us for some festive fitness fun in Rock Park on Sunday 6th December for our Santa & Elf Run!

The event proved to be fantastic fun on it's debut last year and we immediately had lots of calls to host it again this year.

The event will begin with a fabulous warm-up with Roberto Zumba before the runners set off around the park, completing 1 lap (Elves) or 2 laps (Santas).

Every finisher will get a superb medal to cherish and will have the chance to beat our very own Santa and Elf!

Book your places at https://santaelfrun2026.eventbrite.co.uk and help to support our BE A CHRISTMAS HERO APPEAL through your efforts!

03/11/2026

Between 8-11 November, thanks to some truly incredible support, we are creating a tribute to The Unknown Warrior in a poignant act of Remembrance for the fallen.

On Sunday 8th, we will begin a special journey from the town of St Pol-sur-Ternoise in France. The journey will retrace the same route, timings and modes of transport that were used bring The Unknown Warrior home in 1920.

Using a special wreath to represent him, our route will be fantastically supported by the Royal Navy’s HMS Ranger and HMS Puncher, South Eastern Railway and The Royal Logistic Corps Horse Drawn Heritage Team.

On 11th November, Armistice Day, the wreath will complete its incredible journey, reaching Westminster Abbey where it will laid next to the famous Tomb.

There will be many highlights and highly poignant moments along the way and we have plans to capture it all in images and video. We also hope there will be a great deal of media coverage in order to share this amazing story and help us to pay our respects not only to the fallen but to the millions who have lost a loved one in service.

BBC News BBC Breakfast ITV News The One Show BFBS TV The Army in London - HQ London District

02/11/2026

We are very excited to announce a special tribute to the fallen and to one man's remarkable desire to ensure that bereaved families would have somewhere to honour those with no known grave.

Between 7–11 November 2026, The Veterans Charity will undertake an extraordinary tribute to The Unknown Warrior and the man who conceived the idea, honouring all those who have fallen in service and the families who have carried the weight of their loss.

We will retrace his poignant journey home in November 1920, following the same route from northern France to Westminster Abbey, by road, sea, rail and horse-drawn wagon.

Our journey will take us:

🌺 By road from Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise to Boulogne.
🌺 By sea across the Channel on board a Royal Navy vessel.
🌺 By Southeastern Rail to London Victoria Station.
🌺 By a WW1 horse-drawn General Service Wagon to Westminster Abbey.

There, on 11 November, our tribute will culminate in a very special wreath-laying service which will be presided over by the Canon-in-Residence.

We are extremely proud to be working with the Royal Logistic Corps Horse-Drawn Heritage Team and serving Royal Navy personnel, whose generous support is helping us bring this remarkable act of Remembrance to life.

Four wreaths will be at the heart of our tribute, representing the four unidentified fallen servicemen brought from the battlefields to a temporary chapel in Saint-Pol in 1920. From those four, one was selected to become The Unknown Warrior.

In a symbolic recreation of that selection, one of our wreaths will be chosen to make the journey to Westminster Abbey.

The remaining three will undertake their own special journeys to Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, to be laid at national war memorials in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh respectively — honouring the fallen of each nation.

The Scottish wreath’s journey will continue beyond Edinburgh in a deeply personal tribute to the Reverend David Railton, the Army chaplain whose vision gave us the Grave of The Unknown Warrior.

It will travel to Fort William to honour him near the site of the railway accident that tragically claimed his life in 1955, before continuing to his grave in North Ballachulish, where it will be laid in gratitude and remembrance.

We will be filming every stage of the journey, sharing its story and some of its most poignant moments so that you can follow this tribute with us.

Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone helping make it possible: the Mayor and community of Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise; the Royal Logistic Corps Horse-Drawn Heritage Team and The Royal Logistic Corps RHQ; the Royal Navy crews of HMS ******* and HMS *******; St James's Park; The Army in London - HQ London District; South Eastern Railway; Network Rail ; Kent And East Sussex Steam Railway; and the Dean and staff at Westminster Abbey, London.

Every mile will honour a life lost. Every wreath will carry a promise to remember.

Please share this post and follow The Veterans Charity as we undertake this special journey.

Lest We Forget. Routes of Remembrance

01/11/2026

For those who don’t enjoy fireworks, this can be a very challenging time of year.

There are a few steps that can be taken to lessen the impact of the smoke, smells, flashes and noises.

01/11/2026

Big announcement coming tomorrow!

01/11/2026

Fabulous to see Lorraine, Abi and Andy taking on the Bideford 10 Miler today and representing The Veterans Charity in such style.

Andy ran The London Marathon for us this year and Lorraine and Abi are running it for us next year!

Good luck all and thank you!

31/10/2026

Partnership in action!

We were very proud to have Nikki, Manager of Forces Support Barnstaple, helping at our Halloween Hunt today!

Thank you, Nikki, for giving up your day to give such great help (and company!) to our team and thank you also for the amazing work that your team does to support Forces Support Charity and the Armed Forces Community 🙏

31/10/2026

We had a wonderfully spooky day in Barnstaple Pannier Market today, hosting our annual Halloween Hunt!

Huge thank you to everyone who came out to play and support our work.

A big thank you also to the staff at the Pannier Market and of course, to our wonderful team!

31/10/2026

Our Halloween Hunt has begun!
Come and find us in Barnstaple Pannier Market and collect your clue sheet.

We’ve hidden 12 spooky clues around the market, High Street and Green Lanes. Find them all and bring your completed clue sheet back to us to claim your Halloween Goody Bag and play some of our games too!

Address

Seven Brethren Bank
Barnstaple
EX312AS

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+441271371001

Website

http://www.veteranscharity.org.uk/

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