Talking to my little granddaughter Ellie on the way to diving tonight she was telling me about a poem they read out during a Remembrance assembly today, she could recite the first few lines and said it was a lovely but sad poem, I recited my favourite war poem, The Life That I Have, this is now her other favourite poem.
The school caretaker played the Last Post on his bugle, or as she called it, The Last Ghost.
Good to know the next generation are being shown the importance of Remembrance.
In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae
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.
The Life That I Have
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.
by Leo Marks
The second photo is my Dad, a Royal Marine, signed up in 1944 at 14 after claiming to be 16.
Some years later he the played The Last Post at the Cenataph and the Royal Naval memorials at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth.
A day to remember why we are free and those we should be grateful to.
Many men came back having witnessed unimaginable horrors and treatment, they would never be the same again or enjoy the lives that the should have.
Too many died on the battlefield, many more died emotionally and spiritually from the effects of war.
The suffering didn't end in 1945 and continues today with many of our service men and women.
WE SHOULD REMEMBER THEM.