SEVENTY-ONE little stars were plucked from the sky and placed around the Cenotaph on Thursday night.

As bright as celestial eyes, the flickering candles were inscribed with the names of the victims who were killed in the Grenfell Tower fire six months ago.

The tender and moving vigil, organised by the Swindon People’s Assembly, saw people from all over the town come to pay their respects to the 71 who lost their lives in the tower block fire.

Conducting proceedings was Tony Hillier, a member of the People’s Assembly’s steering committee.

He read from a speech that had been given at St Paul’s Cathedral in London earlier that day, before Wroughton singer/songwriter Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn brought tears to the eyes of mourners with a beautiful original song penned in tribute to the victims.

“Anger will speak and there will be an answer,” she sang with a passion raw and sincere.

One woman, Jaqui Barnes-Monaghan, from Penhill, explained why she had ventured out on a cold December night to pay tribute.

With hands clasped around a steaming cup of coffee, she said: “We want to show solidarity with the families of those who died.

“We want them to know that, even though we are not in London, we have not forgotten them.

“It’s important they know they are not alone and that we support them in their campaign for justice.”

Then, as if reading from a roll call of horror, the mourners incanted the names of every single person who perished in the tower, before gently blowing out the candles and dispersing.

Tony said that he hoped a balance could be struck between remembrance and political action: between paying tribute to the victims and calling on the government to ensure justice is done for the 71.

At the end of June, a public enquiry was launched to ascertain what happened at Grenfell. An interim report is due in Easter 2018.