Lest we forget

All from the same town of Darlington, my 2 great aunts Florrie and Louie. Louie lost her soldier husband of a few weeks andFlorrie her fiancé who was a war reporter on the Northern Echo. The sisters lived together for the rest of their long lives.
Also my 2 grandfathers who both survived. Sidney Coapes ( brother of Florrie & Louie) my mum's dad who came home a very changed man. Albert Taylor, my paternal grandpa, who ended up in Palestine and stayed there, marrying a local woman, my grandma returning onlyin 1947.

We went to Ypre when we were stationed in Belgium. It was, as Maple says, both moving and sobering. It was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. And we are still carving names on memorials. Over fifteen thousand on the Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire for those killed in conflicts since 1945. With room for as many more. God forbid.

I visited Dunkerque and Normandy many years ago to get a mental image of the landings.
Thoughts to those young men in their thousands who didn't return.
We've got to remember these brave people who died so that we could live.

‘For your tomorrow we gave our today ‘

Yes, harrigran, I agree about how moving the experience in Ypres is. We were there in September and stayed for the
8 pm service. A very moving and sobering experience. To see all those names of the lost etched on the Menin gate, thousands of them, truly heartbreaking. We must never forget.

I was in Ypres a few years ago and found it a very moving experience. We stayed in a hotel that had a crater, trenches and artifacts in the gardens and it was a very big reminder of what those poor soldiers went through

My grandfather, 2 great uncles and a cousin died in World War 1. My mother was 5 when her father marched away, she never saw him again. Her sister was 7.

The loss of their father affected them both profoundly for the rest of their lives, even though their memories of him faded with time. It shaped their characters and that affected their children.

I have visited all their graves and I will commemorate their deaths in the village church and the village war memorial today.

I was honoured many years ago to have been in Ypres with my DM and DD at the commemoration of the war. We landed there by chance having been on a coach trip and found that our planned trip to the shops in Lille were closed. Some on the bus were disappointed but my DD at the time 15 suggested that the driver go to Ypres, we did. It was a wonderful experience. It was so peaceful, calm and the service held there was just so lovely. I can remember how I felt, it was a very heartfelt moment and I will remember it always.

I agree travelasfar last night I said to my husband, if its raining tomorrow we won't go the ceremony. He replied, yes the men in the trenches looked up and said, we won't get out today as its raining. I felt so sad then, we have no conception of what they endured.
Lest we forget

Very Special Day

Planning on walking to our local memorial this morning. As Pittcity says, a spot of rain wont deter as those on the battlefields had so much more to endure.

We will be putting on our Macs and going into our garrison town to remember. A little bit of rain won't put us off. As Justin Trudeau said yesterday, a hundred years ago the rain was bullets.

At the going down of the sun......

I feel tearful - it's a very special day . I'm going down to our Pages of the Sea later . No words , just a physical ache .

Watching my eldest grandson in the Beavers Parade and taking younger grandson to put a cross at the war memorial in my memory of fallen friends of his great grandfather.

They bravely fought to give us a future. What brave, men, women, boys and girls.