A MOVING concert to remember the fallen heroes of the First World War has raised money for two war charities.

Longparish Village Choir joined forces with Whitchurch’s All Hallows’ Church Choir to perform two concerts in aid of charities War Child and Alabare.

Accompanied by musicians to honour local war heroes past and present, the two choirs took to St. Nicolas’ Church in Longparish and All Hallows in Whitchurch to host the event.

As part of the commemoration, research was conducted into the names engraved on nearby war memorials to find out about the lives of the people behind them.

Stories of the veterans were interspersed with music and poetry readings, which included works by Wilfred Owen and Rudyard Kipling.

Alison Cooper, a member of Longparish Village Choir, said: “We are all very good at the process of remembering, but the organisers wanted us to think about the people we are meant to be thinking about and unless you know who they are, it’s very difficult.

“There was a story of a 16- year-old boy who was very tall and he was sent a white feather, accusing him of cowardice.

He was so stunned – he joined up straight away and then died a few weeks later in battle.

It was quite hard to sing when you heard stories like that.”