Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen: Read by Christopher Eccleston

Remembrance Sunday 11 / 11 / 2018

Today was, of course, Armistice Day  -  the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, and also a time to remember all wars and conflicts, and the men and women ( and animals ) who served... those who came back and those who didn't.

This morning Sarah, James and I went to a service at Gloucester's war memorial, where hundreds turned out to mark this solemn and momentous occasion. Although the weather was showery it managed to stay dry for the service and the sun even shone while the Lord's Prayer was being read and the two minute's silence was observed. After the service the assembled service men and women marched through the centre of the City...

Although I don't have any direct connection with the forces, I was thinking today of my grandfather, Private Harry Reginald Barton, who fought in the First World War. Harry was a farmer's boy who joined the Gloucester Regiment ( the "Glorious Glosters" ) at the age of 19 ( James' age! ) and was wounded in the leg while in service. I never knew him  -  he died in 1960, six years before I was born  -  and know very little of his time during the War, but I often think of what it must have been like for such a young man in that terrible, terrible conflict. Today we can only imagine the horrors those ( mostly ) young people suffered... but we must always remember...

In the early evening we went to the nearby village of Slimbridge to see a remarkable art installation by local sculptor, Jackie Lantelli. She's fashioned life-size figures of soldiers out of wire and placed them in Slimbridge churchyard. Each of these "ghost soldiers" stands before a gravestone or plaque remembering those of the parish who gave their lives in conflicts, most in WWI.

This was a beautiful tribute to the fallen and was incredibly moving.

"Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them."

Remembrance Sunday 2015

There is nothing more I can add to those four simple, poignant words...

My grandad's World War One medal

Never forget...

In Flanders Fields

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae, May 1915

 

"In Flanders Fields" is one of the most poignant and iconic poems to come out of the mud, misery and mayhem of the First World War. It's certainly one that I always recall on Remembrance Sunday. I've also found out today that its author, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, was an ancestor of MD Jackson  -  hugely talented artist, writer, blogger and friend of TGWS. Mike told me that, as a child, he used to read this poem at school Remembrance Day assemblies, because of his family connection. Then, as today, beautiful works of literature or art such as this poem were and are  indispensable means of connecting our modern world, however briefly, to past generations and their unimaginable sacrifices. We must never forget...

Never forget...

At the going down of the Sun

Today is Remembrance Sunday and, in fact, it's the 90th anniversary of the 1918 armistice. Amazingly, there are still 3 living British veterans of WWI, all well over 100 years of age, Harry Patch, William Stone and Henry Allingham, each representing one of the 3 armed services. Seeing these old servicemen today it makes you wonder if they could ever have imagined all those years ago that they would live on into the 21st century, having lived through the supposed War To End All Wars, and having witnessed British lives being lost in WWII, Korea, the Falklands, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. The world has moved on and changed in thousands of ways, but bloodshed and war still remain. Regardless of our political views or whether we think wars are fought for the right reasons or not, I believe we should support and remember our living and fallen servicemen and women, especially in the cases of the two World Wars. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid.

Endblog 3.

Soundtrack: silence.

"War always finishes with both sides sitting down and talking; why the devil don't they do that beforehand?" Harry Patch, aged 110, ex- 7th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.