Today I will attend the Remembrance Day Parade in Burghfield in the morning, and in Wokingham in the afternoon. I will lay wreaths in memory of the fallen in the two world wars and more recent conflicts on behalf of my constituents.
Today I will attend the Remembrance Day Parade in Burghfield in the morning, and in Wokingham in the afternoon. I will lay wreaths in memory of the fallen in the two world wars and more recent conflicts on behalf of my constituents.
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November 11, 2012
I am about to leave to attend our small town’s ceremony. Over 200 brave young men lost in both wars.
The impact this must have had is unimanigable.
November 11, 2012
An important duty.
Thank you.
November 11, 2012
Indeed – let up hope we can avoid any new conflicts.
November 11, 2012
Interesting to see at our local ceremony this morning how many young are now in the parade and how fulsome is public support.
November 11, 2012
Attended today with my husband in full uniform and my son as a cub.
Extremely proud to be there and of both of them.
It was a beautiful day and the crowd was much larger than it’s been in recent years (when it’s rained) which was wonderful to see.
November 11, 2012
John, I sense there might be a change afoot. Today in our village (large urban) there was the largest turnout for the parade that anyone can remember. Youths of the 2 parish primary schools, the scouts, guides and you name it they were there in large numbers, which to us old ‘uns born in the last war and those younger than that was moving and impressive. Interesting times we live in, I think…..
November 12, 2012
John, as a service pensioner it was great to see some of my old pals in the march past at the London Cenotaph.
The National Memorial Arboretum is a wonderful place to visit, and the Memorial Wall a place to stand and look at the names one remembers, and consider how young they were and how old I am lucky to have become.
Perhaps one day it will be a place to rest our fallen in action and perhaps their relatives would be at ease allowing them to be in a place where they will be taken care of and honoured in Memoriam.
So many are buried or their ashes scattered to the winds, their resting place neglected and their contribution to our freedom disgraced by the careless and deliberate abusers. Families do not often last and their care can fade, but our fallen must never be forgotten. The war graves commission do a magnificent job abroad, but often our heroes and heroines last resting place is neglected when they are brought back home. I trust I do not offend anyone with this suggestion.
November 13, 2012
For the first time in many years, I attended our local Church of England Rememberance Day Service. Not for the first time, I was impressed by the sacrifice of the dead, by the moment of rememberance, the church architecture and the hymns. However, as usual the prayers, the lessons and the sermon left me cold. What on earth have the deity and a historical figure from Palestine got to do with the two world wars that we fought and our folk memory of them? It’s not about God, it’s about our nation.
As always, the best hymn was “I vow to thee my country”. The first verse is all about devotion and willingness to sacrifice. The second verse is the author’s perception of heaven; however, it would serve equally well as a description of Churchill’s “broad, sunlit uplands”.
Later, the historical doubts re-emerged. Just what was WW1 all about? In WW2, did we fight for the defence of our islands, for the retention of our Empire, against Nazi ideology or against German domination of Europe? Perhaps a combination of all of these things. Who remembers what our motives were at the start of WW2 and the fact that El Alamein, in October 1942, was the first land battle in which we had beaten a German Army?
And the final thought, very un-PC: German domination of the European continent by peaceful means is almost as unacceptable as German domination by peaceful means.
November 13, 2012
Sorry, should end ……… “by military means.”