Fallen soldier to be honoured by opening of road bearing his name

Anthony Matthews
·1-min read
The playing of the Last Post at last year's Remembrance Match at Oxhey Jets in memory of Pte Tom Lake <i>(Image: Watford Observer/Oxhey Jets FC)</i>
The playing of the Last Post at last year's Remembrance Match at Oxhey Jets in memory of Pte Tom Lake (Image: Watford Observer/Oxhey Jets FC)

Military personnel and a football club will be among those to honour a fallen soldier when his mother officially opens a road named after her late son on Thursday.

Private Tom Lake was a member of the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales Regiment, who was killed on November 20, 2011 while serving in Afghanistan.

Pte Lake played for Oxhey Jets and the Combined Counties League club and Watford Rural Parish Council will be among the organisations taking part when his Mum, Carol, officially opens Tom Lake Way, in South Oxhey, on Thursday lunchtime.

Those involved will muster at 11.45am before making their way to the ceremony at Tom Lake Way, which is located off Prestwick Road behind a Lidl supermarket.

Tom Lake Way will be officially opened on Thursday (Image: Oxhey Jets FC)

The ceremony is due to start at 12 noon when Royal Marines Colour Sgt Stephen Saleh leads the playing of The Last Post.

Following a minute’s silence and the Reveille, there will be speeches by military personnel before the road is officially opened by Carol Lake.

Among the dignitaries due to attend are another member of The Princess of Wales Regiment, Johnson Beharry VC, who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 2005 for “two individual acts of great heroism by which he saved the lives of his comrades” in Iraq the previous year, and Watford legend Luther Blissett.

Oxhey Jets honour the memory of Pte Lake at the staging of their annual Remembrance Match against a team from the armed forces, with all proceeds donated to the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.

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