Remember

The children at this local school are young enough to be my grandchildren. My two grandfathers were either down a Welsh coalmine or looking after horses on the Front in the First World War.

I don’t remember my grandfathers because they both died when I was very young but their wives were important characters in my childhood.  But my children did not know their great grandfathers and the children at this school could not possibly have known their great great grandfathers (or g-g-gmothers).  And yet we remember them as a Society.  I’m touched that we do.

But I do wonder how long it is fitting to continue and what would be the right way to evolve what we do on this day for the future. 

[registration_form]

4 Replies to “Remember”

  1. I guess that Remembrance Sunday is intended to remember those who have fallen not just in the First World War but also in other wars of which, sadly, there have been a number since, including some in which these children’s father’s and uncles might well have taken part.
    How justified the UK’s involvement was in those wars varies but our armed forces are not allowed to choose which wars they agree with and which they don’t so I think it is appropriate to continue to recognise the sacrifice they have made in all conflicts and to pay our respects. The involvement of the German President in this year’s ceremony at the Cenotaph was highly welcome in my view, underlining as it did the fact that in every war there is suffering and loss of life on both sides and also that the most fitting tribute of all that we can pay the dead is to endeavour to ensure that we live in peace with the rest of the world and work hard to avoid going to war again

    1. My fathers father served in WW1 as a stoker in the navy. Despite this being a dangerous task, as a torpedoed ship usually lost those down below in the engine room, he survived although we believe he was torpedoed during the battle of Jutland. It may be that some of his younger brothers also served but we don’t know.
      Two of the sisters of my grandmother, his wife lost their intendeds in that war and never married.
      My father served on the Royal Artillery in WW2 in North Africa and Italy, although he had Italian friends who sent wedding presents we he married my mother “the war” was something he never talked much about. My mother and her sisters lost their only brother after the armistice at the end of WW2. So although at the time he was part of the army of occupation in Germany he does not appear on any memorial to the services despite efforts, particularly by my late brother to rectify this. My grandfather never got over the loss of his oldest child and only son, he drank too much for the rest of his life. I remember all my grand parents.
      My partner is German, my mother didn’t like that idea until they met and it was fine. My partners grandfather was a village postmaster near Frankfurt, he was shot by the Nazis for being a real Socialist. His son my partners father had no wish to fight but on threat of death he joined the medical core and served a s stretcher bearer on the Russian front, then in Germany.
      For a long time, even at school I never felt comfortable with remembrance Sunday to me it always smacked somewhat of military triumphalism and the glorification of war. I’ve always thought that we should remember all the dead from all sides in all our wars. I try to do that and I have friends in a number of European countries and wish us all to live in peace. I won’t wear a red poppy reminds me to much of Haigh who sent so many of our brave men to futile deaths in WW1. However I still remember, especially the uncle I never knew and think even now it is important that future generations also remember. As long as they also know that to go to war in nearly all cases means we ( or our leaders) have somehow failed and are lessened by that failure.

  2. Very insightful Paul and I agree entirely with your final paragraph.
    The massive interest in past wars (in films for example) and the paraphernalia of war sickens me.
    Nick

  3. Interesting and thought provoking Mark.

    If we wanted to evolve Remembrance we could start by winning the peace, and where better than to achieve peace among nations and make peace with the other creatures with which we share the earth. Sadly we seem as far away as ever from achieving either. As I watched the wonderful ceremonies in the Albert Hall and at the Cenotaph over the weekend, it made me think that some of the fine words rang a little hollow.

    As we mark the centenary of the end of WW1 I’m 46 years old. With a bit of luck I will still be alive to see the centenary of the outbreak of WW2 in 2039. Could we work see an end to all armed conflict by then? With an unhinged populist in the white house and Russia and large parts of Europe turning back the clock to the nineteenth century, the signs are not good. It’s left to President Macron to speak out against nationalism.

Comments are closed.