In pictures: Mercian regiment make annual pilgrimage to Derbyshire memorial

Representatives and veterans for the Mercian and the former Sherwood Foresters regiments were joined by local dignitaries for the ceremony on Sunday, July 7, timed to commemorate the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in 1916.bcfg

Together they climbed the hill to lay wreaths at the foot of the tower and look across the Derwent Valley as they remembered more than 12,000 comrades from Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire who died in the two world wars and later conflicts.

After a dedication ceremony the previous year, the first pilgrimage took place in 1924 on the tenth anniversary of the First World War’s outbreak, and a newspaper report from the time illustrates how the ritual has remained largely unchanged.

The journalist present that day wrote: “A moment of pulsating emotion was reached when, after the sounding of the Last Post by two buglers of the regiment, the crowd stood for two silent minutes alone with their thoughts.

“Spread below like a great green carpet was a dear corner of England for which the men folk and their fellows whom they were honouring had fought, above them stood the mighty memorial of stone which they had raised.”

There was one change to proceedings this year, with the regimental mascot ram Derby 32 promoted by the King, from lance corporal to the rank of corporal.

At the end of the year Corporal Derby will be retired back to the duke of Devonshire's flock and a new mascot ram will be chosen.