Bristol Evening Post – 27 April 1972
Sad Day for Old Soldiers
Bristol’s Old Contemptibles parade with a mixture of pride and sorrow on Sunday evening.
Most of the 15 men who make up their local Branch are now in their 80s and getting “a bit old” for parades.
So for the last time they will take their colours to St James’s Church in The Horsefair where they are to be laid up.
But the men who refused to surrender to the Kaiser are not giving up altogether.
For their Secretary, Mr Fred Hill, assures me: “We shall carry on with our monthly meetings. These take place in St James’s Church House and attract an average attendance of 11.
“We are simply laying up our colours.”
During the evening service the veterans will parade to the altar to present the colours to their Chaplain, the Rev. Ezekiel Hopkins, for dedication, watched by the Sheriff, Mr Robert Cooke, and his wife, Dr Mavis Cooke.
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Bristol Evening Post – 29 April 1972
The Bristol Branch of the Old Contemptibles’ Association inform their friends and Patrons that they will be laying up their Standard at their Church Parade in the Priory Church of St James, The Horsefair, on Sunday evening next at 6.30 p.m. All are welcome.[1]
[1] The Priory Church of St James’s was later declared redundant and put up for sale by the Church Commissioners, and the Standard laid up there by the Bristol Branch was removed. Around the time that the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £3.2 million to conserve and repair the building, which had been in a state of severe neglect for some years, the Standard of the Bristol Branch was offered up for auction on 17 February 2009 and sold for £90. It is now in the hands of a private collector.
Old Contemptibles' Association Scrap Book 