Over a hundred and thirty rowers from Nottingham’s rowing clubs gathered on Trent Bridge on Sunday morning to pay a special tribute to their clubs’ former members who fell in the First World War.

Facing the War Memorial on Victoria Embankment and the Rowers’ Memorial on Trent Bridge they held their oars at “half mast” for the two minutes’ silence.

Spanning the whole width of the river they made a stirring sight, which elicited several appreciative comments from passers-by.

At the end of the two minutes the members turned to face the rowing clubs and held their blades erect.

The majority of the oarsmen were from Nottingham and Union Rowing Club being the merger of the old Nottingham Rowing Club and the Nottingham Union Rowing Club just after the Second World War. These two clubs lost 40 members between them.

The Nottingham Britannia Rowing Club and the Nottingham Boat Club were represented by the Nottingham Rowing Club formed in 2006. They lost 14 members.

Nottingham University were also represented by a large contingent of students and would be in the age range of most of the soldiers that fought in the trenches.

The clubs’ records show that members served with distinction in all theatres of the war on land, sea and in the air.

From the original Nottingham Rowing Club alone, the awards earned were 1 Victoria Cross, 1 Distinguished Service Order and 9 Military Crosses indicates the high calibre of all those former rowers who fought on our behalf and to whom we owe so much.

After the ‘Blades on the Bridge’ there was an exhibition of war and club memorabilia from the period at Nottingham & Union’s clubhouse.