Here’s where you can find out all about events planned by the Hill 112 Memorial Foundation and how you can be part of the story.
Our fantastic celebration of the forties is returning to Betteshanger Park on 27 and 28 July 2024 and promising to be bigger and better than before.
We’ve lined up a superb range of activities, events, attractions, stalls, trade stands music and dance. A licensed bar, street food and re-enactment groups will make this a fantastic weekend of forties fun, food and fizz. We are still keen to hear from traders and re-enactors – just email annette@thehill112.com or telephone 07540 374683 to find out more.
Plans are being put in place for two military vehicle convoys next summer that will follow in the footsteps of the 112th (Wessex) Field Regiment, 477 Battery, F Troop.
The aim of the fund-raiser will be to retrace Albert Figg’s journey from Ver-sur-Mer, at the eastern end of Normandy’s historic Gold Beach, to Hill 112.
There will be two opportunities to join the convoy, on Wednesday 5 June and on Sunday 7 July.
The vehicles will journey through some of the places where Albert’s troop dug in with its 25-pounder field gun on the way to Carpiquet Airfield, from where it fired over Hill 112 in support of the infantry.
To be kept informed of the plans as they develop, please email annette@thehill112.com
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With the 80th anniversary of D-Day approaching, the Hill 112 Memorial Foundation is planning a number of events to raise awareness of the sacrifices made by those who secured our freedom in the second world war.
The first is a sponsored walk by Trustee Fred Ross, who is setting out to walk from Winchester to Eastbourne, an impressive 99 miles, between 20 and 27 April.
This will be a remarkable achievement for a man who, while a keen walker, admits to being “the wrong side of 75”.
We hope you will feel able to support his effort, which will raise money to improve, maintain and provide new drainage at the Garden of Remembrance at Hill 112.
To sponsor Fred and support this great charity, call him on 07803 149046 or email fredross246@btinternet.com
The Foundation is marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day with a very special Taittinger champagne reception and luncheon at the Crescent Turner Hotel, Wraik Hill, Whitstable on Thursday 9 May
Guest speaker at this not-to-be-missed event will be well-known author, historian and radio and TV presenter David Starkey, who will talk about D-Day, while the Swingtime Sweethearts will add to the occasion with a selection of hit songs from the 1940s.
Also present as a guest of honour will be Normandy veteran Ken Hay, who landed on Juno Beach on 23 June, 1944.
Overnight on July 7/8, Ken was one of 30 men on a platoon night patrol behind German lines when they were cut off, and battle ensued. Sixteen men, including his brother Bill, got back, five were captured and the other nine were killed in action. Ken was just 17-and-a-half.
The captured men endured a terrible journey to Stalag V111B Teschen in Poland and then a further journey by lorry to Gliwice before being marched to Zabrze and put to forced labour in a coal mine. They were later forced to march through snow and ice on what later became known as The Long March to Freedom before being liberated by American soldiers.
As well as the presentation by David Starkey, guests will be able to bid in our auction of highly prized items, including a week in a villa in the South of France, a Mont Blanc pen and Taittinger Champagne.
Tickets for the luncheon are just £75, including a champagne reception, with a discount of £75 for tables of eight. They can be purchased by emailing annette@thehill112.com All proceeds will go to The Hill 112 Memorial Foundation.
A short season of films with a wartime theme is being held between Thursday 30 May and Saturday 1 June, organised by award-winning Kent filmmaker and Hill 112 Memorial Foundation Trustee Peter Williams.
The films are being screened at the Great Hall, Kent College, Whitstable Road, Canterbury CT2 GDT to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day and tell the stories of those caught up in the conflict of World War Two.
A Season of films by Peter Williams
This short festival is sponsored by Andrew Clague, Hugo Fenwick and Quinn Estates
DAY ONE: D Day Plus 80
Thursday 30 May
2.30pm: The Queen and Her Horses (1 hour)
A behind-the-scene glimpse of the ceremony which is part of the tradition of Britain's Royal Family and her armed forces. This film includes the only interview ever given by Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
7.30pm: A Canterbury Tale: The Battle for Hill 112 (1 hour approx.)
The story of a crucial battle in which 7,000 men died in the weeks after DDay - and of Canterbury veteran the late Albert Figg, who survived the battle and devoted the last 30 years of his life trying to complete a memorial to those who died, many of them his friends.
DAY TWO: New Life and a Revelation
Friday 31st May
2.30pm: (a double bill) To Mrs Brown, A Daughter (30 minutes)
Exclusive access to the birth of the world's first 'test tube baby' Louise Brown, her parents and the medical breakthrough by surgeon Patrick Steptoe, who lived in Canterbury, and Professor Robert Edwards; and
Test Tube Explosion (1 hour): In which Professor Edwards discusses 'the brave new world', and the development of In Vitro fertilisation in a film that was runner-up in Europe's prestigious Prix Italia.
7.30pm: Titanic - A Question of Murder (1 hour)
An examination of the reasons why the great vessel that struck an iceberg and sank in 1912 had too few lifeboats to save all the passengers and crew - and of the attempts by those who owned her to conceal the decisions that contributed to the deaths of nearly 1500 people.
DAY THREE: The Triumph of the Human Spirit
Saturday 1st June
2.30pm: (a double bill) They Fought 'the Few'(30 minutes)
Fighter 'aces' British and German, recall the Battle of Britain in 1940/1 and the unlikely post-war friendship between the RAF's Robert Stanford Tuck and the German 'ace' Adolf Galland. They meet at Tuck's home in Deal, Kent; and
Martha Gellhorn - On the Record (1 hour):
The life and times of one of the 20th century's great reporters, Martha Gellhorn, who beat her lover Ernest Hemingway in filing the first reports from the beaches at D Day. It is told by the late Marie Colvin, herself a great war reporter, who died in the conflict in Syria doing her job.
7.30pm: LIDICE: The Village that Refused to Die (1 hour)
The mining village of Lidice, in the Czech Republic, was razed to the ground in 1941 by Hitler's Nazis and its inhabitants slaughtered. Mining communities in the UK, notably in Cwmgiedd in South Wales, helped to ensure that the horror of Lidice should never be forgotten. Win Plocka, now 100 years old, who lived in Lidice and was married to a Czech fighter pilot, revisits the new Lidice.
All performances are at the Great Hall, Kent College, and there will be a Q & A with the director after each performance. Tickets are £10 (plus £2 booking fee), booked through the Canterbury Festival Website https://canterburyfestival.co.uk/
All proceeds go to support the Hill 112 Memorial Foundation (Charity Number 1181345)
