Worcester's next Gheluvelt service is at 11.30am on Sunday 31 October 2027 in Gheluvelt Park, 113 years to the day. Cadets joined this year for the first time.
Worcester’s next Gheluvelt service will be at 11.30am on Sunday 31 October 2027, at the Gheluvelt Memorial in Gheluvelt Park. That is 113 years to the day since the Battle of Gheluvelt.
This year’s service went ahead at 11.30am on Sunday 25 October. For the first time, a contingent of cadets from Worcestershire took part: their unit is named Gheluvelt Battery.
The Worcester Branch of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association holds the commemoration every year. The memorial, a sculpture in the park on Barbourne Road, used to be called the Interpretative Feature.
The quick answer
- Next service: Sunday 31 October 2027, 11.30am.
- Where: the Gheluvelt Memorial, Gheluvelt Park, Barbourne Road, Worcester WR3 7AA.
- Who can go: anyone. The association has said the public are very welcome.
- This year: held on Sunday 25 October 2026, with cadets taking part for the first time.
How Sunday’s service went
The guests at the memorial, as listed by the association, included:
- the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Major General Mark Armstrong
- the High Sheriff of Worcestershire, Maynard Burton
- Worcester’s MP, Tom Collins
- the Chair of Worcestershire County Council, Councillor Paul Bennett
- the Mayor of Worcester, Councillor Tor Pingree
- the Chairman of Wychavon District Council, Councillor Gregory Wilkins
Captain (Retd.) Hugh Richards stood in as Branch President. Representatives of the Mercian Regiment, the Royal British Legion, veterans and other regimental associations also attended.
A contingent from the Welsh Regiments Association came to represent the South Wales Borderers, who, the association says, “stalled the German advance during the Battle of Gheluvelt.”
The Reverend Peter Davies, chaplain to the Royal British Legion in Worcestershire, led the prayers. Colour Sergeant Williams of the 4th Battalion the Mercian Regiment, the successors of the Worcestershire Regiment, read the names on the Roll of Honour.
It stayed dry. “The weather gods smiled kindly on the ceremony with no one getting soaked by rain,” the association said.
3 photos, swipe or scroll. Photos: supplied by the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association
What the service remembers
The battle was fought near Ypres in Belgium on 31 October 1914. The association’s account, printed in its order of service, sets out why Worcester still marks it.
“On October 31st in 1914, after 10 days of battle, nearly every unit had been drawn into the battle line and had been broken beyond recovery,” it says. “The 2nd Battalion The Worcestershire Regiment was the last available reserve of the British defence.”
At 12.45pm, A Company went forward to a railway embankment to stop the enemy advancing up the Menin Road. At 1pm, Major Hankey was ordered to counter attack. At 2pm the battalion moved off in file, bayonets fixed.
“Everywhere there were signs of retreat. The Worcesters alone were moving towards the enemy,” the account says.
Three companies, B, C and D, went down into a valley. The association puts them at 370 soldiers in total.
“The two leading Companies broke into a steady double and swept forward, the officers leading and, behind them, their men with fixed bayonets in one long irregular line. They scrambled across the light railway, through hedges and wire fences and then, in the grounds of Gheluvelt Chateau, they closed with the enemy.”
The account gives credit to the South Wales Borderers, who had held the chateau grounds all day. “Their resistance had delayed and diverted the German advance and the success of the counter attack was largely due to their brave defence.”
The village itself could not be held for good. But the association says “the main force of the enemy had been driven out and the peril of a collapse of the British defence about the Menin Road had been averted.”
It came at a heavy price. “A third of the Battalion’s remaining strength, 187 all ranks, had been killed or wounded,” the account says.
“It stands to the perpetual credit of the Regiment that, at the darkest hour of that great battle when others around them were in retreat, our war-worn officers and men went forward unflinching to meet unknown odds and, by their devotion, saved the day.”
Why the park carries the name
Gheluvelt Park in Barbourne was created in recognition of the battle. Lord French, Earl of Ypres, formally opened it in 1922, and the plaques on the Memorial Arch gateway at the entrance record why.
The association’s page on the park gives the opening date as 17 June 1922. It also notes that homes for disabled servicemen were built within the park.
The link with the village goes both ways. On 24 March 2023, after a delay caused by Covid, a refurbished memorial to the men of the 2nd Battalion was unveiled at Geluveld in Belgium. The release says those attending included:
- Worcester’s then Mayor, Councillor Dr Adrian Gregson
- dignitaries from Zonnebeke, the municipality that covers Geluveld
- Worcester Ambassadors
- representatives of the Mercian Regiment and the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association
- descendants of the men who fought there
What it means for you
The next service is at 11.30am on Sunday 31 October 2027, at the same memorial in Gheluvelt Park. Gheluvelt Park is on Barbourne Road, the A449, north of the city centre. The service is outdoors, so dress for the weather.
The city’s Remembrance Sunday parade and Cathedral service are on 8 November this year: see our Remembrance Sunday Worcester page for that day’s timings.
Have your say