Peace rose planted at St Albans abbey to remember victims of nuclear bombs

A PEACE rose has been planted outside the Abbey to remember war victims, in particular those killed in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in Japan.

The flower was planted by the St Albans Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to replace a symbolic cherry tree in the Abbey Orchard which died some years ago.

More than 50 people gathered on Hiroshima Day last Thursday to see a plaque next to the rose in Sumpter Yard unveiled and dedicated by the Dean of St Albans, the Very Rev Jeffrey John.

The nuclear bombs dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later ended World War Two but more than 200,000 people died in the explosions or through radiation poisoning.

The victims of both attacks are remembered by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CMD) on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb every year.

The nationwide organisation was set up in 1958 with the aim of freeing the world of nuclear weapons and remembering those who have fallen victim to them.

And the local branch of the campaign was established in the 1980s during the nuclear war threat between the Eastern and Western world.

Secretary of the St Albans CMD, Laurie Gibson, said of the recent service: "We were honoured to have Jeffrey John to dedicate our plaque. I believe he is following in the footsteps of Dean Thicknesse, the Dean when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped who would not allow the Abbey bells to be rung because he felt that the use of nuclear weapons did not accord with Christianity."

He added: "Whatever we may think about Hiroshima we can all agree that humanity must get rid of nuclear weapons or one day they will get rid of us.