AVENHAM Park in Preston will be teaming with soldiers, old and young, this Sunday when they commemorate the siege of Kimberley.

The four and a half month battle which secured the British stronghold in South Africa nearly 100 years ago, was a victory to the Loyals Regiment, one of the founder units of the county's current infantry contingent.

Though the veterans of the Boer War (1899-1902) are no longer with us, the Kimberley parade has been a feature of the town's military calendar since 1904.

Originally the memorial stood in the town centre but it was moved to Avenham Park in 1922 to make room for the Cenotaph.

The last Kimberley veteran died in 1965 and the march was cancelled for a few years until its revival in the early 80s.

Last year's parade was called off due to icy weather conditions, but all being well, this year's will take place at 11am at the Kimberley Memorial with Loyals veterans leading with the standard of the Preston Branch of the Boer War Veterans' Association.

They will be escorted by their successors, the Fourth Battalion of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), which has its headquarters at Kimberley Barracks in Deepdale.

Organiser of the event Major Anthony James Maher is himself a veteran of the Loyals, and now assists with his former colleagues' welfare in his role as QLR's assistant regimental secretary.

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