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To find the origins of the Bedworth Armistice Day Parade and Service we must go back to 1921 and a local schoolteacher, Alfred Lawrence. Mr.Lawrence had seen active service in the Great War and was instrumental in founding the Bedworth Branch of the Royal British Legion. In 1921, Alfred Lawrence organised the first Armistice Day Parade and so the tradition has carried on, through the Second World War and into the present day.

After Alfred Lawrence the organisation was taken over by Tom Bucknall, a Great War veteran. Tom oversaw the Parade until after the Second World War when the reins passed to Maurice Smart, a local businessman and war veteran who kept the Parade and Service going until 1986 when Frank Parsons, an ex-Royal Marines Commando and World War Two veteran, took over the organising role. Since then the Armistice Day Parade has never looked back and Frank and the Committee must be credited with making the Parade the national and international event it is today.

The Armistice Day Parade has grown beyond all recognition from its first humble beginnings in 1921, but it still retains its fundemental role; to honour the dead of the two World Wars and to honour those who have given their lives since on fields of conflict around the globe. It is a day when Bedworth hosts over 5,000 people.

Taking part in the parade are The Coventry Pipes and Drums, The Royal Marines Corps of Drums and 121 ATC Band. There are 30 standard bearers and hundreds of veterans from all over the country who come to pay their respects for the fallen. The Navy, Army and Air Cadets also take part along with St. John Ambulance, Young Firemen, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and local school children.

The salute is taken by the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, The Mayor of Nuneaton and Bedworth, the MP for Bedworth and North Warwickshire, the MP for Nuneaton and high ranking officers.

The moving service is punctuated by the roar of Wright Cyclone R-1820 engines as a DC-3 Dakota makes a low level run over the War Memorial and a million poppy petals fill the November sky, the haunting notes of the "Last Post", the tears and the quiet pride of men and women gathered to remember.