Today is Remembrance Sunday

We have been told people are not welcome to attend to the ceremony in the village centre due to social distancing and for reasons of crowds not allowed to form.

So C-19 has stopped it.

 

Hasn't stopped you remembering. Our village has loads of things in place - virtual services, people standing on their drives for the 2 minutes silence.

 

I think ours is going ahead , albeit with distancing and held outside. Which is fine.

 

As a veteran of course it hasn't stopped me remembering. Personally I always think of the guys who didn't come back from the conflicts I was involved in. The village memorial is located on a busy Y corner and there is little room to stand, usually the road is closed. Even when the road is closed someone will try and drive through, one got through last year (luckily not on the side where the veterans parade). This year there is no road closure so now where to stand.

Dont forget to donate to the RBL you can do it online.

 

I live next to Tunbridge Wells Cemetery which has many WW1 and WW2 Commonwealth war graves and I walk there often. The WW2 memorial garden has rows of graves but many others are distributed around the cemetery in family graves. I'm not sure if a service will be held this year at the cemetery but the memorials have been decorated with poppies for visitors to see.

 

East Grinstead are closing the top of town and the annual service at the war memorial is going ahead this morning

 

Best ignored really. At best they are thick idiots, at worst trolls trying to get a rise out of people. Most right minded people know it’s about remembrance not glorification.

 

I always remember my Uncle Wilf - killed on 31st July 1917 aged 21 - at this time.
Last Thursday went to place a poppy/cross on the memorial where he is listed as the ceremony has been cancelled today.
Our village is having a drive in memorial service this afternoon at 5pm in Tesco car park after the store closes.

 

Hear hear Malc well said

 

Exactly - Lions lead by donkeys

 

There are those on both sides of the argument who haven’t really considered what remembrance is about. Indeed it’s different things for different people. For me it’s to commemorate the innocents that served and suffered and gave their lives to maintain the freedoms we enjoy today. Discussions as to whether their sacrifice was necessary or avoidable should be for a different day but given the focus of the day it will always attract the discussion.

 

I visited Hawkinge ww2 airfield museum a few years back. Well worth visiting and I particularly liked the way they showed parts of German planes brought down as well as RAF planes and the story of the pilots who were killed. The local cemetery next to where I live has many war graves as I mentioned and most were late teens/ early twenties and one chap in his fifties was killed as a fireman in the London Blitz. Many of the young ones served in aircraft.

The CWGC looks after these graves and they always look cared for.

My old Grandad born in 1875, joined The Buffs in 1893 when he was only age 18 and served in the Boer War and WW1 and he always had stories to tell about his comrades. Grandad was lucky in WW1 as he didn't go to France but served in India and Mesopotamia (Iraq).

My Mother's father Frederick Harmer was killed in WW1 at Gallipoli in the HMS Hythe disaster and my Mother was only 3 when her Dad went to war and never came back. Local Southborough wealthy entrepreneur David Salomon lost his son Reggie when the Hythe went down and although he could have saved himself, he stayed with his men.

Their sacrifice deserves to be remembered.