St George’s Day is on Sunday, April 23, and you are invited to celebrate England’s patron saint at services at St John’s, Hale, at 9.30am, and St George’s, Badshot Lea, at 10am. TS Swiftsure, Farnham Sea Cadets, will take part in the service at St George’s.

St George has been venerated as a saint in England since the 9th century CE though he was actually born in the 3rd century CE in Cappadocia (modern day Turkey), and was probably an officer in the Roman army. He was a Christian and it seems he was killed in the early 4th century, maybe on April 23, because he wouldn’t worship pagan gods.

St George is meant to have killed an evil dragon but the story about this actually originates several centuries after his death. Nevertheless the story stuck and the image of St George defeating the dragon appears on the George Cross, an award created in 1940 by King George VI to reward acts of great courage in times of danger.

This doesn’t stop the friendly St George’s dragon coming to church however.