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Remembrance Sunday services to honour Stoke's Victoria Cross recipients

By Liana Snape   5th Nov 2025

The City Remembrance Service will be held at the Stoke Cenotaph and will honour all three Victoria Cross recipients (image via Nub News)
The City Remembrance Service will be held at the Stoke Cenotaph and will honour all three Victoria Cross recipients (image via Nub News)

The city will be paying tribute to its three Victoria Cross recipients during Remembrance events this Sunday (9 November), Stoke-on-Trent City Council has announced. 

The centenary year services will honour the three Victoria Cross recipients, Lance Sergeant John "Jack" Baskeyfield, Lance-Sergeant John Harold Rhodes and Sergeant Ernest Albert Egerton. 

The City Remembrance Service will be held at Stoke Cenotaph, outside the Town Hall, at 10.45am, led by Rev Alison Thomas. 

The service will honour all three Victoria Cross recipients and members of their families have been invited. 

Those unable to attend the service will be able to watch it live on the Stoke-on-Trent City Council Facebook page from 10.40am. 

At Burslem Cenotaph, outside Swan Bank Methodist Church, a service led by Rev Kathryn Stephens will take place from 10:45am to 11:30 am.

This service will remember Jack Baskeyfield, who posthumously received the Victoria Cross for his actions at Arnhem in 1944, manning two anti-tank guns despite being wounded. 

John Rhodes VC, from Packmoor, was the most highly decorated non-commissioned officer in the Grenadier Guards, recognised for bravery at Passchendaele in 1917. 

Ernest Egerton VC, born in Longton, received the Victoria Cross at just 20 years old for actions in the same battle. 

The Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, Councillor Steve Watkins, said: "These Victoria Cross recipients showed courage and selflessness beyond measure. 

As we mark the city's Centenary, it is right that we come together to remember their bravery and the sacrifices they made for our country. 

"As a veteran myself, it means a great deal to ensure that the legacy of heroes like Jack, John and Ernest live on for future generations. 

Ordinary young men who showed extraordinary courage in some of the darkest moments of our history – their sacrifice will always be honoured."  

Additional services will take place across the city:

  • Marychurch Road, Bucknall (10:45am to 11:15am)
  • Tunstall Memorial Gardens (10:45am to 11:15am)
  • St John's Church, Goldenhill (10:15am to 10:50am)
  • Outside Hanley Town Hall (10:30am - 11:30am)
  • Longton Park (10:15am to 11:30am) 

As part of the Centenary programme, the Spitfire Gallery at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery will also host an expanded exhibition featuring items gifted by Baskeyfield's family to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum. 

For the first time, his posthumous Victoria Cross will be on display, alongside a free screening of a special film on Arnhem and Baskeyfield's final stand at 1.30pm in the museum theatre. With original footage the film charts the history of the battle and the courage Baskeyfield displayed before being killed in action at the age of 22. 

     

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