In Rememberance

[Chelsea14Ian]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses,row on row.That mark our place,and In the sky the parks,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 due.We shall not sleep,though poppies grow in Flanders fields.

[Chelsea14Ian]

A few mistakes  sorry,it the phone deciding .

[ExSurveyor]

15 minutes ago, Chelsea14Ian said:

A few mistakes  sorry,it the phone deciding .

It is the thought that counts Ian.

 

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.

[Vaughan]

How poignant last night, at the Albert Hall service of remembrance, to see the Chelsea Pensioners singing "The Old Brigade". It is their regimental slow march, which we will hear again today when they march past at the Cenotaph but when you hear the words sung, you can tell why they chose it!

Over the sea far away they lie, far from the land of their love;  nations alter, the years go by, but Heav'n still is Heav'n above.

Not in the abbey proudly laid, find they a place or part; the gallant boys of the old brigade, they sleep in Old England's heart.

Then steadily shoulder to shoulder, steadily blade by blade!

Ready and strong, marching along, like the boys of the old brigade!

[Vaughan]

The service at the Albert Hall is always moving, but always slightly different each year. I was glad to see that it was a lot more "military" this year than it has tended to be in the last couple of years. There were one or two particular highlights for me :

The band of the Royal Air Force playing "Semper Fidelis" in honour of American forces.

That most evocative sounding of the Last Post by a solo bugler of the Royal Marines. To those who know it, the bugle is one of the most difficult instruments in the world to play and to hear it done like that, solo, in the Albert Hall, with such perfection and cadence is exceptionally rare.

The sounding of the bugle call "sunset" at the end, is traditional in a "beating retreat" ceremony and this year it had the tune "prelude to sunset" sung by the choir as a background accompaniment. It is a famous arrangement by Lt Col Vivian Dunn, who was director of music of the Royal Marines in the 60s, but it is only very rarely that you ever hear it sung. I didn't even know it had any words!

[vanessan]

A number of times I have been at the Menin Gate in Ypres for the last post. It has never failed to bring tears to my eyes. The sheer numbers of names around those walls is mind-blowing bearing in mind they are the names of those whose bodies were never found. Around 20 years I stood with my father (who fought in the Commandos in Burma in WW2) looking over the graves at Tyne Cot. He said he was imagining a soldier rising up from beneath each headstone and falling into line to create a huge army. That memory has always stayed with me. My Dad returned to Burma several times to pay his respects to the pals he lost. On his last trip he eventually managed to get to the Arakan where many of them died. My dad passed away in 2015 aged 95, he had managed to join Remembrance Day parades until only a couple of years before he died. 
Something else that I remember. On a visit to one of the WW1 museums in France, they had a screen showing soldiers climbing over a fence rifles at the ready. They walked forward into a mist and then disappeared. This was shown as a constant replay and it was quite mesmerising. 
I hope our schools continue to take youngsters to the Somme and to Flanders and all those other places, they need to learn about the devastation of war. And we must remember. 

[grendel]

the one thing that i took back from visiting the war graveyards in france and belgium was how well kept they are throughout the year, grass kept short and everything so neat and tidy.

[Ray]

24 minutes ago, vanessan said:

And we must remember. 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Karen and I will be walking up to our local parade in a few minutes, I'm going to take some pics, as it's always very well attended by booth young and old. 

Grendel, my Uncle Jack (Gunner "John Philip Lawlor") is buried on CWGC cemetery in Bergen Op Zoom in Holland. We took my Mum and Dad there to visit Uncle Jack's grave for their Golden wedding anniversary. When I found his grave, I felt a shiver all over, and a picture of a soldier in uniform came into my mind, I met my Uncle Jack for the first time. 

RIP Uncle Jack. 

[ExSurveyor]

1 hour ago, vanessan said:

I hope our schools continue to take youngsters to the Somme and to Flanders and all those other places, they need to learn about the devastation of war. And we must remember. 

They do cover it very well in my grandchildren's schools.

My 4 1/2 and 9 year olds produced these.

In my 8 year olds school they hold a remembrance service with the caretaker playing the Last Post solo on a bugle, very haunting and moving.

[vanessan]

2 hours ago, grendel said:

the one thing that i took back from visiting the war graveyards in france and belgium was how well kept they are throughout the year, grass kept short and everything so neat and tidy.

And in this country too. I live in a very small village but our church has about half a dozen true war graves. I have seen the CWGC here. 
A while ago I visited one particular cemetery in France, on the Somme. I took a friend who wanted to find her grandfather’s grave, he lost his life on the last day of the battle of the Somme and is buried in the Regina Trench cemetery. We had quite a time finding the cemetery as it is one of those literally in the middle of a cabbage field - as so many of them are. As Grendel said, they are all so well tended. I believe they have since refurbished the Regina Trench headstones as they were becoming illegible. 

 

35 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

They do cover it very well in my grandchildren's schools.

I am so pleased to hear that, long may it be so. 

[Poppy]

To properly respect the war dead, we must learn the lessons of the past and apply those same lessons.
Most alive today have (thankfully) never had to experience thehorrors of those who served.
I truly hate the 21st century feast of Nationalism that rememberance has become !

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

33 minutes ago, Poppy said:

To properly respect the war dead, we must learn the lessons of the past and apply those same lessons.
Most alive today have (thankfully) never had to experience thehorrors of those who served.
I truly hate the 21st century feast of Nationalism that rememberance has become !

Nationalism encourages pride in our country, what`s wrong with that?. 

I am fiercely proud of my country, and will always respect those that have fought and died for it. 

What i am totally ashamed of is what successive governments and rich businessmen have done to it, and allowed it to become the mess it is.

[grendel]

i am not against pride in my country so much as against all the hate and emnity generated in its name, the hate is what those ancestors and older generations fought against, so using nationalism to generate hate, to me is against the values they fought and died to uphold.

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

A few from this morning.

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

6 minutes ago, grendel said:

i am not against pride in my country so much as against all the hate and emnity generated in its name, the hate is what those ancestors and older generations fought against, so using nationalism to generate hate, to me is against the values they fought and died to uphold.

Never let the word NATIONALISM be substuituded for the word HATERED, it is`nt. Unfortunately, the mass media and politicians have "encouraged?" the public into believing that anybody who is a Nationalist or is patriotic is a racist bigoted extremist. 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Anyway, this thread is about rememberence, not politics.

[Poppy]

Surely wars , and therefore by definition remembrance, are about politics ?

Anyway, this thread is about rememberence, not politics.

Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app

[Vaughan]

42 minutes ago, Poppy said:

 

Surely wars , and therefore by definition remembrance, are about politics ?

5 hours ago, SPEEDTRIPLE said:

Anyway, this thread is about rememberence, not politics.

 

 

 

Although I don't like where this thread might be going, I cannot agree with that sentiment.

The British armed forces are proud to be "above politics". They are the servants of the Queen.

Politicians may take us to some awful places and situations during history but for us, in the free world, "Queen and Country" must always be what counts.

[unclemike]

17 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

The British armed forces are proud to be "above politics". They are the servants of the Queen.

politicians send the troops to war not the queen

[ExSurveyor]

Is this really the appropriate thread to be discussing politics.

 

The title is In remembrance.

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

As you have said.I started this thread to honor those that died,serving there country and those that served.I do so out of respect. I'm not interested in the politics.

[Poppy]

[Smoggy]

Around St.Neots where I live someone has done a project to erect silhouettes of soldiers outside houses (or where houses used to be) where fallen soldiers lived with their names and places where they fell, I believe it's been done as a trail to follow.

Quite a nice touch to make them people not just names.

[Helian]

When we moved to this small Surrey town 22 years ago we got at best about 200 to the parade and service. Yesterday I estimate there were in the region of 1200. Our Council is also hosting another, brief, service at 11.00 this morning.

It seems to me that Remembrance Day services are becoming much more strongly supported and respected, and not fading away. Each generation has a duty to ensure this continues. Last year our Council planted 851 trees, to mark 100 years since Armistice, one for each member of the Borough who died in WW1.

Ian