John Beardwood, a former member of the Royal Artillery regiment sadly passed away last week in a nursing home at the ripe old age of 102. Unfortunately, the only two surviving family members of John, both in their seventies, live in Norfolk and for health reasons will not be able to make the journey to the funeral. At the time of writing, the only people who will be attending John’s funeral are the nursing home staff and the Preston and District Veterans Council Standard party.

Standard Bearer, Stuart Dagger contacted the veterans honoured, the RBL Bikers and ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, formerly the Army Benevolent Fund, who posted the original information, to find out what he could about John. Other than ourselves at BlogPreston, Stuart has also contacted other local news media organisations such as the LEP, Forces TV, Radio Lancashire and RockFM where he has been involved in a recording session which will be aired on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

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Stuart is determined to see a fitting turnout at John’s funeral and said, “If anyone can make it to see John on his final journey it would be very much appreciated. Let’s not see this war hero go off alone, let’s attend and say thanks for his service to our great nation”.

We are in absolute agreement with Stuart and hope that with all the expected media attention, John will be well and truly honoured in a manner deserving of him.

John’s funeral will be held at the Preston Crematorium,  Wednesday 20th August at 2.30pm

Will you be able to make it to John’s funeral? Let us know in the comments below.