People Web International

WILTSHIRE - The small town of Wootton Bassett in west Wiltshire became well-known in the UK in recent years, as townsfolk and the streets often stood silent for the funeral corteges of service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tradition developed spontaneously, in a county where 20% of the population are military or connected with it making the impact of the war felt widely.  

Now that honour bestowed on the dead by townsfolk is itself being honoured. On 16th March 2011, the Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the Queen will rename the town Royal Wootton Bassett, ‘as an enduring symbol of the nation’s admiration and gratitude’. The re-naming will take place before the nearby Royal airforce base at Lyneham  is closed, with military transports relocated to Brize Norton in nearby Oxford by the end of 2011.  

The town joins Royal Leamington Spa and Royal Tunbridge Wells.  Both of these spa towns petitioned for the honour in recognition of their antiquity and Royal patronage of their facilities.  Leamington Spa was granted the title in 1838 by Queen Victoria, and Tunbridge Wells in 1909 by King Edward VII.  

Military personnel have long been an important part of the community, employment and traditions of Wiltshire. The army camps and training grounds of Salisbury Plain dominate the high chalk downland in the centre of the county. The civil population of the surrounding areas are used to seeing Chinook and Apache helicopters wheeling on manoeuvres, and to hearing the thump of artillery practicing in the distance on the Plain.  

-- by Ken Taylor - PWI Regional Reporter Wiltshire - wiltshire@peoplewebinternational.com