Remembering

Today is Remembrance Day when services and ceremonies will be held around the country at war memorials in cities, towns and villages to commemorate those who have fallen in war. Similar services will be held around the Commonwealth and in other places.

At eleven o’clock, the nation will once again observe a two-minute silence to honour the dead. After this, wreaths of poppies will be laid to memorialise and symbolise the blood spilt in war; that flower being a reminder of the poppies that bloomed across some of the battlefields in WWI.

The Queen will lead the nation by laying the first wreath at the Cenotaph in London. She will be followed by many representatives of various organisations, including those of the armed services. Afterwards there will be the familiar parades, including those of veterans.

People of my generation who were born towards the end of or after WWII have much to be thankful for. We were not directly affected by war except when parents or relatives were killed or injured in them.

As I said the other day, those who gave up their lives did so to keep this country free. Regardless of whatever anyone else feels about war, I for one will be watching the ceremony at the Cenotaph and will observe the two-minute silence.

It will be the least I can do to remember those who gave up their lives for their country.
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A Dishonour

Millions of Britons stopped what they were doing yesterday to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day. They stopped at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in remembrance of the day in 1918 which signalled the end of the First World War.

That solemn two minute silence honours the dead of all wars and it will be repeated when the Queen leads the nation at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

Yesterday, a small group of protesters burned a model of a poppy in Exhibition Road, South Kensington. Some held placards saying BRITISH SOLDIERS BURN IN HELL.

These same people forget that our soldiers gave their lives to preserve what is still thankfully a free country.

What, I wonder, would happen if these same people returned to their own countries of origin to protest about the happenings there?
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We Will Remember Them

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Those who watched last year’s Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph will have seen two frail elderly gentlemen being taken in their wheelchairs to lay their wreaths along with the others at that sad place.

They were Henry Allingham aged 113 and Harry Patch aged 111, and they were two of the last British survivors of the First World War. Henry died a week ago and Harry died yesterday, leaving only one British survivor, Claude Choules aged 108, now living in Australia.

The events of WWI, in which it is estimated that 16 million combatants and civilians of all nationalities were killed, are unimaginable to us. No historical or personal accounts can truly convey to us the horror of that war any more than the many cemeteries adequately represent to present day eyes the vast numbers of casualties inflicted.

It is fitting then that a National Memorial Service will be held later in the year for those involved in what was then known as The Great War and the War To End All Others. But it is more than sad that its lessons have not been learned and that deadly conflicts continue to this day.

Two minutes of silence once a year are not enough to think about such things.
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