Rememberance Parade!

FrenchieBoy

Well-Known Member
I was just wondering how many of you have sat down and watched The Rememberance Parade at The Cenotaph on TV today?
I make a piont of watching the Parade at the Cenotaph every year.
You can call me a softie or whatever you want but it always brings a tear to my eye and a lump in my throat thinking of how so many were willing to make such a sacrifice for our freedom.
Nowadays it is even more poiniant to me as my father passed away just 12 hours after he marched on the Rememberance Day Parade 22 years ago after attending The Parade with some of his Comerades from The Free French Army.
I never had a happy sort of "Father Son Relationship" with my father but that is a personal thing. However, no matter what I thought of my Father he served his country throughout the Second World War, and he served it well, with most of the War Years spent serving with "The Free French". While serving on active duty he was awarded around a dozen medals and also received a hand written commendation from Charles DeGaule, all of which my older brother now has in his care.
His ashes are now spread around The Free French War Memorial in France.
However we should not just dwell on or mourn for just our own personal losses, we should all remember and honour all of the brave men and women who were willing to make that "ultimate sacrifice" by offering their lives for our freedom and the world which we live in now. And of course while we are remembering those that served in both The First and the Second World Wars we should also remember those that have made that same sacrifice in all the other conflicts while serving their country in the more recent years.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
220px-Royal_British_Legion's_Paper_Poppy.jpg
 
Not on the TV. Alas not in London this year either, but I went and stood in the rain at my local and there was a really good turn out despite the weather.
 
Maybe I'm a bit sarkey but I must say it.
All the medals and poppies out today, lots of guys in uniform, some compulsory no doubt as it was in my day, and then tomorrow all the medals back in the drawer until next year.
During my 26 years I served in the Far East, Middle East, Europe and Central America.
I have spoken to people from both sides that were directly affected by some of our wars, I have visited War Graves in Europe, the Far East and the middle East and brought to tears when reading the ages of some/most of the fallen.
The thing that is not thought about very often is that for every grave that is a fallen soldier, sailor or airman, many more were wounded, tortured or starved to such an extent that they did not die during the war but suffered and died many years after.
I will never forget the sacrifice and suffering made by so many from both sides so don't need a parade to remind me.
I know this post may upset some but believe you me, no Church Service can describe or represent the sacrifices made by common people on behalf of Governments.
Activity in the Balkans a few years ago and even more recently has shown that nobody learns any lessons.
All I can say is that I am glad I am too old now to be involved but I dread to think what our younger generation is, and may in the future, have to put up with.
 
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We went to a local service this morning, and my 12 yr old daughter was playing the trumpet there.

I think it's important that my kids understand the sacrifices made by so many so that they have the freedoms that they do today - and aprt from the fact that both my wife and I had grandparents that were involved in WW II (her grandad flew mosquitos and got shot down, my grandad was in the scots guards & my great uncle was a decorated spitfire pilot), there are individuals who have been involved in the numerous conflicts since. A very good friend is out in Afghanistan right now.
 
Mankind has historically always been a warlike species. In the middle ages and before, there was a season for campaigning, going into winter quarters when the weather made it too difficult.

At first, it was the next village wanting to expand and take over yours, then it was city states, then it was countries, then it was world wars.

Although only the future can tell, I sincerely hope that we actually are learning to live differently and have learnt lessons. We can have some hope that world conflicts are now a thing of the past. Even smaller conflicts are now confined to certain parts of the world and you can argue that they still indulge in war because they aren't as advanced as other areas.

As the grandson of a soldier who was gassed in the Great War, the son of a soldier in the Second World War and the daughter of a nurse who worked in the home counties during the Battle of Britain, I am incredibly proud of all those who gave their lives or indeed their health for the freedoms we have today. But I have to believe that not only did they successfully defend those freedoms, but as a species, we are very gradually learning that war is not what we should be doing.
 
However we remember, whether out in the rain at your village memorial, or at the big state occasion, or maybe just at the Lych gate of the church, the fact that we do remember is all that matters, remembering will not stop the fact that human nature requires a reaction in kind, to acts of aggression,& all that comes with such reaction.
 
They passed into light from a tortured world, leaving threads of light as with bright sunlight through a curtain, threads of golden memories, of tearful partings, of unending grief and undimmed pride.
As they left, so they will return to us when we are all together again in that gravity of conscience that love and honesty project.
Until that final meeting the threads that bind us grow shorter and their love moves nearer to ours, there is no loss, just a delayed meeting when the world will cease to have meaning, for we will be with those we love and have loved through all.
It will matter not where that is but only that it will be ours, together.

Anon
 
My late mother, she died in 2014 aged 94, always did. Being a War Widow, married at 21, widowed at 23, she had a personal connection to it.

But of course it is all a nonsense. Lest We Forget? High Commissioners from Australia, South Africa, Jamaica, Nigeria, New Zealand, India and etc.. Everyone of these countries lost men fight for Britain yet everyone of these countries the descendants of those men now require a Visa. No Ambassadors from Roumania, Bulgaria and etc.. Yet they come here freely and have more rights to bring in their family members than do British Citizens theirs.

My mother never did understand why it was that the world had moved on and that Lest We Forget had and has become just mere words...that people from the Commonwealth needed Visas and all that...but of course remembering the dead costs nothing. And only takes a hour on a Sunday but once a year. And all the politicians their lick spittles and lackeys are even back home in time for Sunday lunch.

Helping the surviving veterans, the widows, the orphans, and etc., is ongoing commitment that is 24/7 365...and always seems to be "too expensive"...
 
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High Commissioners from Australia, South Africa, Jamaica, Nigeria, New Zealand, India and etc.. Everyone of these countries lost men fight for Britain yet everyone of these countries the descendants of those men now require a Visa. No Ambassadors from Roumania, Bulgaria and etc.. Yet they come here freely and have more rights to bring in their family members than do British Citizens theirs.

but of course remembering the dead costs nothing. And only takes a hour on a Sunday but once a year. And all the politicians their lick spittles and lackeys are even back home in time for Sunday lunch.

Helping the surviving veterans, the widows, the orphans, and etc., is ongoing commitment that is 24/7 365...and always seems to be "too expensive"...

Amen!
 
We were the brass band at ours in Middlesbrough... got very wet and cold but a tiny sacrifice in comparison... reasonable turnout from the public, 3 or 400... but the weather kept a lot more away!!
 
I went with my son to our local parade as his Scouts march every year. He was very proud to be the wreath bearer for the Scouts and I was extremely proud to be there watching.
 
I used to take my son and the Scouts to the parade every year, too.

In the USA, almost every town of any size, and many very small ones, have a Parade and show of remembrance on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Driving yesterday, I went through small towns with a banner on every block showing some fallen son from 1918, 1944, 1969, 2003. I bet that wherever I am, I will be able to take a photo of a parade or a gathering and post it.

Yesterday, November 10, was the 240th anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps, by the Continental Congress. Semper Fi.
 
Took the early Church service on Sunday,then went to the town parade. All gets terribly emotional for me.
This morning went to village Church and spent a while contemplating the memorial on my own.
We can never pay back what was given for us but we can still spend time remembering those who fought for us and the relatives and comrades lost in both world wars and the various conflicts since.
We will remember them.
 
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