MEMBERS of the Alcester Branch of The Royal British Legion will join thousands on a pilgrimage to Belgium as part of the Great Pilgrimage 90 (GP90).

The Royal British Legion event, taking place between August 5 and 9, will mark 90 years since the original British Legion pilgrimage in 1928, which saw 11,000 World War One veterans and war widows visit the battlefields of the Somme in France and Ypres in Belgium, a decade after the conflict ended.

That pilgrimage culminated in a march through Ypres to the Commonwealth War Grave Commission’s Menin Gate Memorial for a ceremony to commemorate the launch of The Hundred Days Offensive and in remembrance of those who never returned.

Now, local legion members Mike Clark and Nick Dearling will tour some of the same battlefields and cemeteries visited by those on the 1928 Pilgrimage, before marching along the original route through Ypres, to the Menin Gate on August 8, bearing the branch standard and a wreath.

They will join more than 2,200 other legion representatives and dignitaries, including civic and military guests from the UK, commonwealth and northern Europe who are taking part.

Once at the Menin Gate, Nick will lay a wreath on behalf of the Alcester community.

Mike Gittus, chairman of the Alcester branch of the Royal British Legion, said: "Great Pilgrimage 90 is a unique opportunity for our legion family to join together and carry our standards along that same route in an act of remembrance.

"The Alcester branch will proudly represent our local community at the event.”