Legion statement on the repatriation route from RAF Brize Norton
16 August 2011
From 1 September 2011, repatriations of fallen Service personnel are due to transfer from RAF Lyneham to RAF Brize Norton, ahead of the closure of RAF Lyneham later in the year. The Royal British Legion, along with other organisations, has been in consultation with Oxfordshire County Council, Thames Valley Police and RAF Brize Norton over the route that fallen Service personnel will take from RAF Brize Norton to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Our views have been taken into account in informing the route decision and we feel the chosen route and related plans will provide our members and the wider public with appropriate opportunities to continue to pay their respects.
Within RAF Brize Norton, a repatriation centre for bereaved families has been constructed on the southern side of the runway and corteges will consequently leave the base by the gate (Britannia gate) nearest to that. The area around Britannia gate is being landscaped.
Oxfordshire County Council has commissioned a Memorial Garden at Norton Way on the repatriation route, near RAF Brize Norton, Brize Norton village and Carterton, and the Legion has been helping to design this. The Union Flag will be flown at the garden on the days repatriations take place. Trees and poppies will be planted around it. The Legion believes that the garden will become a focal point and a fitting place for all members of the public and Legion members wishing to gather silently as the corteges pass, to pay their respects to the fallen. There is an intent to commission a Memorial Bell for the Memorial Garden and fundraising is taking place to enable this.
The whole nation and beyond has been moved by the quiet tributes paid to the fallen when corteges passed through Wootton Bassett and it is hoped that the ceremony and commemoration on the new route will remain spontaneous and dignified.
The Legion encourages its members to pay honour and respect to those who have fallen in Service to the nation. Our presence is most visibly demonstrated by the parading of the Branch Standards, but as the Legion is part of the local community many Legion members will stand silently among those who gather to pay their respects.
The Legion is not responsible for repatriation flights and ceremonies themselves, these are military operations. The detail of the route remains a responsibility of the Ministry of Defence and the Civic Authorities. Oxfordshire County Council have the details of the repatriation route and other arrangements via the following link Oxfordshire County Council Repatriation Information.
