Step Short Parade 2012
At 11.00 a.m. on Sunday 5th August 2012 the Step-Short Commemorative March took place in Folkestone. The Parade formed up on the Leas opposite The Grand Hotel at 10.30 a.m. At 11.00 a.m. The Parade Marched off along the leas, down The Road of Remembrance and into the Harbour Area.

Millions of men marched down Folkestone’s Road of Remembrance between 1914 and 1918 on their way to the harbour. Those men were soldiers heading for the ferries that would take them to Boulogne, the trenches of France and Belgium and an uncertain future. As they prepared to march down the hill they would hear the order “Step Short”, a command to shorten their stride to make tackling the steep gradient safer.

This was the fourth such commemorative march held by the Step Short Project on or about the 1st Sunday in August each year leading up to the Centenary in 2014 of one of the most significant events in the recent history of the nation’ the outbreak of the First World War.

The Parade consisted of Veterans and their Standards; World War 1 Historical Groups dressed in period military uniform, various Cadet Forces, detachments, Guides and Scout Groups, and was led by the Folkestone Pipes & Drums Band, and The Folkestone & Hythe Sea Cadet Band. Dignitaries such as the Folkestone M.P. Damian Collins, (The Step Short Chairman) The Folkestone Town Council, Cinque Port Mayors and members of the general public also joined the march. Alan Warren from the RRF SE Kent Branch was the Parade Marshall.