Amazon Banbury team hosts garden memorial service for Remembrance Day

The team from Amazon’s Banbury Delivery Station held a special Remembrance Day service on Friday November 12 to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian service members in the First and Second World Wars and other conflicts.

They were joined by around 50 children from Hanwell Fields Community School, who are currently studying WWII at school, for the service conducted by clergy, along with three Royal British Legion buglers and a piper.

The delivery station is partly built on the grounds of the former Alcan factory which produced rolled aluminium used for building fighter planes such as Spitfires and Hurricanes during WWII. The Alcan site employed more than 3,500 people, a number of who went to war.

Each year on the Friday before Remembrance Sunday, the service is held at a memorial garden on the grounds of what is now the Amazon Banbury delivery station.

Chris Smithson, yard marshal supervisor at Amazon and chairman of the Banbury branch of The Royal British Legion, said: “I’d like to thank everyone who came along to pay their respects and to John Bridgeman for leading the service.”

The service is part of a wide range of military activities that take place at Amazon. The Amazon military programme, which launched in the UK in 2011, offers veterans the opportunity to pursue exciting post-military careers. The programme saw Amazon named Employer of the Year at the Ex-Forces in Business Awards this summer. Amazon also won the award in 2020.

Amazon is also a signee of the Armed Forces Covenant. The Covenant, originally introduced in 2011, has a focus on helping the armed forces community to access the same support from government and commercial services as the public. Amazon first signed the Armed Forces Covenant in 2013, and renewed its commitment earlier this year to endeavour to uphold its key principles and to demonstrate its commitment to serving personnel, reservists, veterans and families.