SCORES of poppies decorated an evocative painting at a moving service to remember men who gave their lives in The First World War.

Retired head teacher Graham Sheen created the art work for a special commemoration service at St John’s Church in Lostock Gralam.

Graham, from Northwich, is one of the ministers at the church, and the painting depicts soldiers carrying an injured fellow soldier across No Man’s Land.

The service was held to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the global conflict, and the names were read out of the 83 men from the parish who gave their lives during the war.

As each name was read out a poppy featuring the name of the man was placed on the painting by local primary schoolchildren.

The poppies were created by children from Lostock Gralam Primary School and Wincham Community Primary School.

The parish of Lostock Gralam includes Wincham, Lostock Green and Lach Dennis, and the names were read out by Lostock Gralam Parish Council chairman Mark Litton, Lach Dennis Parish Council chairman John Hardman and Wincham Parish Council vice-chairman Kenton Barker.

The names were provided by Helen Green and John Knowles, and before being read out Reverend Brian Harris spoke about the lives of some of those men who had given their lives in service of their country.

There was added significance to the service at it was the first occasion the names of those men from the local communities who died in the war had been read out at a single event.

“Graham’s painting was a very suitable way of representing the tragedy of The First World War in what was a very moving service, which included members of the congregation and quite a number of people from the local community,” said Rev Harris.

The service included the retelling of the Christmas Day truce and First World War poems, and began with the announcement of war, followed by the extinguishing of candles.

“It was very poignant to read out the names of the men and think about what they had done for their country,” said Clr Barker.