A MEMORIAL event in Witney commemorated 100 years since the end of the Battle of the Somme.

Witney MP Robert Courts, chairman of West Oxfordshire District Council Norman MacRae and town mayor Chris Holliday attended the service in Market Square on Friday, November 18.

There were about 50 cadets from Somme Company, Oxfordshire Battalion ACF (The Rifles); three buglers from Rifles, Bugles and Drums; along with senior representatives from the forces.

Mr Holliday, who brought a flag to the event donated by The Royal Green Jackets Museum in Winchester, said: “The Rifles have a historic connection with our town. The Witney Company of the Oxfordshire Volunteer Rifle Corps (1856) was incorporated into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1908.

“They went on to fight in the Battle of the Somme and it was right and fitting that Somme Company of the Oxfordshire Battalion ACF (The Rifles) should commemorate the end of that bloody period in the First World War.

“As a town, Witney is always at the forefront in showing its respect for our fallen, none more so than our cadets who were honoured to do so.”

Witney was the only town in the county to hold a service marking the end of the Somme.