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Even with all the advances in medical science it would still be safe to say that November 11, 2011, is a very special Remembrance Day.
It will be the only time for us to remember our fallen heroes who fought so valiantly for our freedom at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 2011. Please reserve two minutes of silence at that time to give thanks for their courage and selflessness.
The Royal British Legion site tells us:
We’ve invited you to be a special part of of this unique occasion, by leaving a message to go on a poppy to be planted at Wootton Bassett, the town where thousands of people have paid their respects during repatriations in recent years which you may have seen on TV. Online dedications have now closed but please visit our special Field of Remembrance.
Many people associate Remembrance Day with heroes of D-Day or the Battle of Britain’s Spitfire pilots. Some people think of the deeds of the SAS during the Falklands conflict or, of course, Flanders Fields from World War I, carpeted in poppies growing where so many men lost their lives.
But in the last few years it’s also been about the nation showing its support for the soldiers returning injured and traumatised from current conflicts.
On Sunday, November 13, thousands of old soldiers, many infirm, along with other men and women who fought in the Second World War and subsequent conflicts will march past the Cenotaph in Whitehall to remember fallen comrades, relatives and friends.
At this time, they recall the verses of the poet Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), two stanzas of which follow:
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
You can find out more about the history behind Remembrance Day and the Unknown Warrior in my 2010 post.
The top photo comes courtesy of the Royal British Legion. The second, below, I have borrowed from Jazz Virdee’s blog. (Click the image to enlarge.) It’s the best photo I have seen of the Cenotaph up close and is particularly pertinent for this day. However, Remembrance Day and the inscription on this post-Great War monument is not just for November 11, but every day of the year.
Churchmouse Campanologist 