Glamorgan County Cricket Club is both delighted and honoured to have been invited by The Royal British Legion to participate in their annual Festival of Remembrance in St. David’s Hall in Cardiff on Saturday, November 2nd.
In particular, the Club have created, with help from Cardiff Met and Tredegarville Primary School, a memorial film charting the life and (tragically) the death of Maurice Turnbull, the Club’s captain, in early August 1944 following the Normandy Landings two months earlier. The film will receive its first showing at the Festival of Remembrance when members of Maurice’s family will also be present along with other Glamorgan staff.
The film will also be shown in the CC4 Museum of Welsh Cricket on the evening of November 7th at a special evening, reflecting on events 75 years ago which looks at how Glamorgan players were involved in the planning and preparations for Operation Overlord, the crossing themselves on D-Day June 6th 1944 and then, as in the case of Maurice, the advance through the Normandy countryside. Tickets for this event, starting at 7pm, can be reserved by sending an email to museum@glamorgancricket.co.uk or ringing 02920 419383.
These activities by the Community Department of Glamorgan County Cricket Club follow the signing of the Armed Forces Covenant last August by the Welsh county’s senior executives, as well as the creation of a closer bond between Wales’ only first-class county with the Service community and former military personnel.
In particular, plans are now in place for a short ceremony at Glamorgan’s headquarters at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff at 11am on November 11th as the nation pauses to remember the contribution made by those involved in times of conflict. The Club’s players, staff and visiting schoolchildren , taking part in softball tournaments in the Indoor School within the National Cricket Centre that day, will all be participating, together with staff from the Firing Line Museum at Cardiff Castle, and other visitors at Sophia Gardens, in a short commemorative event.