Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR Pageantmaster
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Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR Pageantmaster MORE THAN 37 YEARS OF ORGANISING NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL EVENTS For more than 37 years Bruno Peek has Organised Events conceived and organised events on the international, national and local stages In recent years, people in the UK and around the world have joined together to celebrate and involving: commemorate unique national and international historic events. ❖ Town, parish, borough, district, metropolitan, city and county councils. Bruno Peek has been responsible for a large number of the biggest celebrations of this kind for nearly four ❖ UK and foreign governments’departments decades. Some of the most memorable spectacles and occasions, including celebrations for the official and organisations. opening of the Single European Market, the arrival of the New Millennium, Her Majesty The Queen’s ❖ Voluntary, professional and charitable organisations. Golden Jubilee, the Battle of Trafalgar bicentenary, Enjoy England - Celebrate St George’s Day, Fly a ❖ International, national, regional and local media. Flag for our Armed Forces, the Royal British Legion Poppy Party Weekend and The Queen’s Diamond ❖ Leading Members of The Royal Family. Jubilee Beacons, the annual Fly a Flag for the Commonwealth, 50th and 70th Anniversary VE Day Beacons, ❖ Ministry of Defence. The Queen’s 90th Birthday Beacons, Battle’s Over - A Nation’s Tribute 11th November 2018, including the ❖ Churches and cathedrals. ❖ Town criers throughout the UK and the world. Lamplight of Peace have been conceived, influenced and successfully organised by him, involving hundreds of ❖ Pipers and pipe bands throughout the UK thousands of people of all age groups, nationalities and backgrounds from around the world. and the world. 2015 - 2018 Battle’s Over - A Nation’s Tribute 11th November 2018 and the Lamplight of Peace. During these four years Bruno conceived and co-ordinated the following events, which took place throughout the world on 11th November 2018 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1 and in tribute to the millions who died or returned home wounded. ❖ At 6am local time in the country they were in, over 3,000 pipers played Battle’s O’er, the traditional tune played by pipers at the end of a battle, at locations throughout the world, starting in New Zealand and finishing in Hawaii. Also taking part were 125 bands in over 50 countries, including 48 states in the USA, every county in the UK and every state/ territory in Australia. The tune was played in 17 time zones over 23 hours - from New Zealand 13 hours ahead of GMT to Hawaii 10 hours ahead of GMT. It was the first time an event of this nature had been undertaken. The principal UK location for a lone piper was the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, London. ❖ Over 1,300 Buglers played the Last Post at 6.55pm local time in the country they were in, throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and other countries around the world that evening, including Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Malta. ❖ More than 1,400 WW1 Beacons of Light were lit at 7pm throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories, representing the light of hope that emerged from the darkness of war. Most of these were the focal point of specially organised events. ❖ 193 Town Criers undertook a unique Cry for Peace Around the World at 7.05pm local time in the country they were in, starting in New Zealand, travelling across the world and finishing in Honolulu. ❖ Over 1,400 churches throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, and a number of countries around the world, including Malta, Belgium, and the Netherlands took part in Ringing Out for Peace at 7.05pm local time in the country they were in as the finale to this unique, historic commemoration. The Lamplight of Peace was conceived and created by Bruno to pay tribute and to remember the thousands of miners who left their families and loved ones, and the coalfields of the UK to dig tunnels under the German lines on the Western Front. The lamp was lit alongside the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey, London, on the 4th August 2018 while a lone bugler from the Sea Cadet Corps played the Last Post. It was subsequently kept alight for 25 days each by the four official charities of Battle’s Over - A Nation’s Tribute before being returned to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Abbey for 6am on 11th November 2018. The Royal Naval Association (The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, Hampshire), ABF The Soldiers Charity (Sandhurst Group HQ, The Royal Military Academy Chapel, Sandhurst, Hampshire), Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund (St Clement Danes Church, Strand, London) and the Merchant Navy Association (All Hallows by the Tower, Byward Street, London). The Lamplight of Peace was returned to the Abbey by river, by representatives of the Merchant Navy Association at 6am on 11th November 2018, where it was once again placed alongside the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior while a lone piper from the Air Training Corps played Battle’s O’er. It was used at 7.15 that evening by the Dean of Westminster to light a beacon alongside the Garden of Remembrance, Westminster Abbey. The WW1 Tunnellers & The Lamplight of Peace The Lamplight of Peace is unique, and has been made as a lasting tribute The E. Thomas & Williams Bonnetted Clanny (Meusler) Lamp to The Tunnellers, those unsung heroes of WWI who fought their war The lamp was built before 1907 and is the type that WWI tunnellers of the underground, constantly surrounded by darkness and danger. They were Somme, would have taken with them from the British coalfields. Ironically, its among the millions of service men and women who died or returned glass was made in Prussia. The items with which the lamp has been dressed home dreadfully wounded from the Great War, and who are honoured as reflect the dedication and sacrifice of the tunnellers, and the awful arena in part of Battle’s Over - A Nation’s Tribute 11th November 2018. which they performed their amazing acts of heroism. The WWI Tunnellers The Victoria Cross New light has been shed on a special breed of men who fought on the Western The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest award for gallantry in the face of the Front. Their job was not to charge over the top of the trenches but to sink enemy awarded to British or Commonwealth forces. It was awarded 628 times explosive-packed tunnels deep beneath enemy lines. to 627 recipients in the First World War. However, William Hackett was the only WW1 tunneller to receive the VC. The allied tunnelling companies operated in such secrecy that little was known of their exploits for years after the war. Working in total silence up to 100ft Born on 11th June 1873, he worked as a miner for 23 years in the underground their task was to detonate mines beneath the enemy’s trenches Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire coalfields. Rejected three times for being too while seeking out German tunnellers digging the other way. It was a covert war old, Hackett eventually enlisted on 25th October 1915, despite having been waged by civilians with little or no military training - tough and resourceful men, diagnosed with a heart condition. He spent two weeks of basic training at many of whom had been rejected by the army on the grounds of health and age. Chatham, Kent, before joining the 172nd Tunnelling Company. The British Army had about 25,000 trained tunnellers, mostly In June 1916, Sapper Hackett and four others were in Givenchy, volunteer coal miners supported by almost twice that France, tunnelling towards enemy lines when the Germans number of infantrymen working alongside them. They detonated a mine and the shaft collapsed, burying worked in constant fear of carbon monoxide the five men. poisoning, tunnel collapse, explosions and the dread of fighting German tunnellers hand-to- Hackett worked for 20 hours to create a hand in the dark. hole and saved three of his comrades. The remaining soldier, Private Thomas Collins, Their greatest victory came at 3.10am was mortally wounded, however, Sapper on 7th June 1917 when 19 mines were Hackett stayed with him, despite having detonated at Messines Ridge in West the opportunity to escape. When Flanders, Belgium. A seismograph another explosion occurred, both in Switzerland registered the men were buried alive and died explosions and David Lloyd together. George is said to have heard them over 150 miles away in The Victoria Cross was Downing Street, London. presented by King George V Following the blasts, it took to Sapper Hackett’s widow, just three hours for the Alice, at Buckingham Palace British troops to take the on 29th December 1916. German positions. The WW1 Tunnellers & The Lamplight of Peace British and German Barbed Wire (pictured below left) The two strands of barbed wire, one British and one German, were found at Thiepval on the Somme Battlefield. They represent the hopelessness of trench warfare in which so many brave men found themselves tangled and dying on the barbs of a muddy battlefield. Kellingley Coal (pictured left) The pieces of coal are from the Kellingley Colliery, North Yorkshire, the last major coal mine in Great Britain. It represents the selfless civilian miners who left their loved ones to join the WWI tunnellers on the Western Front. Many of them never returned. Trench Post and Soil Sample (pictured centre) British and German Barbed Wire - Donated The shards of trench post built into the base by Taff Gillingham, Tracey Mackenzie and The first of over one thousand four of the lamp around the four panes of glass Kevin Smith, directors of the Great War Huts hundred WW1 Beacons of Light covering the various artefacts were found in Visitor Centre and Heritage project, Hawstead, being lit throughout the United a British trench during road works in 2014 Suffolk.