Bury: Royal Regiment of Fusiliers commemorate Gallipoli

Around 200 fusiliers, veterans cadets and VIPs attended the parade on Sunday to remember those who fell during the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey.

At dawn on April 25, 1915, the 1st Battalion of The Lancashire Fusiliers, part of the British 29th Division, landed on a beach, to the west of Cape Helles, the southernmost tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The Lancashire Fusiliers were famously awarded "Six VCs before breakfast" and W Beach was renamed Lancashire Landing in honour of the battalion that captured it.

The commemorations began with a church service at Bury Parish Church before a wreath-laying ceremony to remember the fallen at Gallipoli.

The parade was made up of five fusiliers, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Band and Corps of Drums Lancashire, Fusilier Association, Cadets and Sea Cadets. 

Lt Col (Retired) Mike McDonald said: "Gallipoli weekend is always such an important date in the Fusilier Calendar so we were thrilled to see the streets of Bury lined with people and paying tribute to those we lost.

“A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the parade and to all the other local organisations we worked alongside to make it a success."

The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, known as "The Fusiliers", is an English infantry Regiment in the British Army, formed from four historic Fusilier Regiments in 1968.

Since then, the Fusiliers have seen service across the world in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, the Balkans, the 1st and 2nd Gulf Wars and Afghanistan.

The Regiment has two battalions, the First Fusiliers in Tidworth and Fifth Fusiliers in Newcastle, and both adapt readily to challenging scenarios.