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Remembrance 2010

IN A WORLD utterly deprived of solemnity, Remembrance Day (and Remembrance Sunday) provides one of the few opportunities for silence, reflection, and appreciation. The First World War was truly a war without victory, the war that Europe lost. Its end is marked not with marching bands proclaiming triumph but with two minutes’ silence. How appropriate that the guns of the Great War finally fell silent on Martinmas day, the feast of the patron saint of soldiers, in this gloomy time of year. On this day there is no triumph nor victory, no vain pomp and glory of this world, but instead a deep respect for the awesome sacrifice of the fallen — a respect whose only expression can be found in that silence.

The Sovereign lays her wreath at the Cenotaph.

The guilty men with their haggard faces.

Small tokens of respect from Queen, Country, and Commonwealth.

Previously: Their Name Liveth For Evermore

Published at 5:05 pm on Sunday 14 November 2010. Categories: Featured Great Britain Military Tags: , .
Comments

Andrew …

Did you follow the story of Cameron’s visit to China during this period of remembrance? Apparently he and his team were advised to not wear poppies. The Chinese advising the British team pointed out that they were a reminder to the Chinese of the Opium Wars. I thought that a bit thin. I noticed that when the photo op with Cameron and Hu Jintao was taken, Cameron retained the poppy.

(For me and my compatriots seeing the poppies always reminded us of another memorable day: that of UDI).

Last Armistice Day I visited the grave of my great uncle in Stegers (Estaires). He was in the First Battalion of Sherwood Foresters, Notts. & Derby Regiment. He fell in 1915 when the front was just to the west of Rijsel (Lille). Unlike many of his comrades (who are interned in military cemeteries) he and a few others are buried in the Cimetière Communal et Extension d’Estaires.

The Wikipedia article on the Sherwood Foresters says this about the First Battalion:

” … The 1st Battalion was in India at the outbreak of war. It was brought home, and sent to France in November 1914 without any chance of adjusting itself to European conditions and as a result suffered badly in its first four winter months of “Trench warfare”. The battalion took part in two of the major battles in 1915 – Neuve Chapelle and Loos, and suffered severe casualties …”

Rumuunj
LIMBURGIA

— Dave Cooper 15 Nov 2010 4:32 am

Andrew,

Your comments re Brown and Blair sum up what we all feel in this country.

If only John Smith had been spared………

— James McEwan 15 Nov 2010 11:10 am

“If only John Smith had been spared…”

….then it unlikely that there would ever have been the political slight-of-hand that was New Labour, and Blair would have remained a grinning snakeoil salesman and obscure MP.

— Xander Fraser 16 Nov 2010 6:11 am
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