Sunday 9th November 2025 saw the annual Remembrance Day Parade, which took place at the top of the High Street by the War Memorial. With the recent recognition of the 80 years since the end of hostilties in World War 2, even more people attended today’s parade and the uniformed organisations were extremely well represented as can be seen in the above image.
Andrew Turner played the Last Post in outstanding fashion, something he has been doing at the parade for more than 25 years.
The Society has a number of posts and articles relating to both World War I and World War II.
Saffron Walden Historical Journal No 29 (Spring 2015)
A WW1 story about the treatment meted out to a member of the Friends’ Meeting House, High Street, Cornelius Barritt who was victimised as a conscientious objector
Saffron Walden Historical Journal No 27 (Spring 2014)
The wide-ranging impact of the First World War on life in Saffron Walden is the theme of the Spring 2014 issue of the Saffron Walden Historical Journal
From Jacobean Mansion to Sabotage School: the wartime history of Audley End House
Audley End House, codenamed Special Training School (STS) 43, was the principal establishment for training Polish SOE agents, 1942-1944.
Saffron Walden Historical Journal No 25 (Spring 2013)
This edition covers ‘What a Place to Die’: the WW2 plane crash at Little Walden – Julian Evan-Hart, and WW2 Defences in Britain Project – Michael Barton
SW War Memorial list
Robert Pike, author of The Victor Heroes, provides details of the 159 men recorded on the Saffron Walden War Memorial, lost in WW1
The impact of the American air bases during World War Two in East Anglia
There were approximately 20,000 American men who arrived in East Anglia in January 1942. They were attracted to the area because of its closeness to Europe and because it would be relatively easy to construct the amount of bases that they required due to the flatness of the land. An article by Sarah Johnson.
The Somme Anniversary
On 1st July 1916 began the longest and most costly land battle in British history – the battle of the Somme. On the first day alone British casualties were 19,240 killed; 35,494 wounded; 2,152 missing – a total for one day of 57,470, a figure never exceeded before or since.
Saffron Walden in the First World War
At 11 o’clock on the evening of 4 August 1914, soon after its troops had invaded Belgium’s neutrality, Great Britain declared war on Germany. On 21 August near St. Symphorien, east of Mons, a twenty-year old British soldier, Pte. John Parr of 4th Middlesex Regiment, went on his bicycle to scout out the environs. He never returned.
Radwinter’s Wartime Harvest Camp
The country was hard-pressed to feed itself during the war, looking to the farmers to plough every last acre. Come harvest time, there was a shortage of labour. So, School Harvest Camps were devised to tap the brawn of older schoolboys.
A Moment in Time: Manuden in wartime
Ray Carter tells the story as an 8 year leaving his house in London and ending up in the middle of the countryside and, as he says it led to ‘ Two years of undiluted and unforgettable pleasure.’