We will remember them. Rememberance Sunday 12/11/06

[redrobbo 10]

Miners

 

There was a whispering in my hearth,

A sigh of the coal.

Grown wistful of a former earth

It might recall.

 

I listened for a tale of leaves

And smothered ferns,

Frond-forests; and the low, sly lives

Before the fawns.

 

My fire might show steam-phantoms simmer

From Time's old cauldron,

Before the birds made nests in summer,

Or men had children.

 

But the coals were murmuring of their mine,

And moans down there

Of boys that slept wry sleep, and men

Writhing for air.

 

And I saw white bones in the cinder-shard,

Bones without number.

For many hearts with coal are charred,

And few remember.

 

I thought of all that worked dark pits

Of war, and died

Digging the rock where Death reputes

Peace lies indeed.

 

Comforted years will sit soft-chaired

In rooms of amber;

The years will stretch their hands, well-cheered

By our lifes' ember.

 

The centuries will burn rich loads

With which we groaned,

Whose warmth shall lull their dreaming lids,

While songs are crooned.

But they will not dream of us poor lads

Left in the ground.

 

Wilfred Owen (1893-1914*) *killed in action one week before WWI ended.

[KJ_VENOM 10]

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

We will remember them

Lest we forget.

Amen.

 

is this Wilfred Owen?

 

remember the brave people who gave their lives in both 'world wars' every day, they fought and died for the freedoms we hold so dear freedom to live as we choose and to speak freely without fear of persecution

 

some of these brave souls paid the ultimate price, NEVER forget!

[redrobbo 10]

is this Wilfred Owen?

 

No, it was written by Laurence Binyon. Here's a link....

 

http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/binyon.htm

[nanrobbo 12]

Do you know every evening at 9.00pm. in RSL clubs around Australia the Ode to the Fallen is read. Everyone stands and repeats the "We will remember them- Lest we forget" I have always found it very touching- Mary

[Treatment 10]

Per Mare Per Terram

[Jossman 10]

Per Mare Per Terram

 

You ex Booty then Royal??

[redrobbo 10]

Per Mare Per Terram

 

The Royal Marines' motto is Per Mare Per Terram; By Sea By Land. It is not known when this motto was adopted, but it first appeared on the caps worn by the Marines at the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.

 

It is of interest that the plural of this motto Per Mare Per Terras is one of the mottoes of the MacDonalds. The son of the Jacobite heroine, Flora MacDonald, served with the Marines in the American War of Independance.

 

This crest is also the main component of the Royal Marines Cap/Beret badge. The Corps Crest comprises 6 elements: The Lion and Crown, Gibraltar, The Globe, The Laurels, Fouled Anchor and Per Mare Per Terram.

[Zaytsev 10]

I will be remembering my Great Uncle Harry Eyre:

 

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1742239

 

He was a sheffield lad who joined up at the beggining of the war in 1914 aged 19. He was a miner. He rose through the ranks in the East Yorkshire Regiment to be a Sergeant.

 

He was injured twice, including bullet wounds to the neck, and returned to England to recover before going back to France.

 

He then applied for admission to the Officer training Corp and joined the Sherwood Foresters as a Second Leiutenant on 18th January 1918.

He was killed on or around 17th September 1918, less than two months from the end of the war.

 

He was a former pupil of Woodside School on Rutland Road and they had a large picture of Harry in uniform hanging in the assembly hall. The school is no longer there.

 

Although I, obviously, never knew him personally reading the war diaries, the heartbreaking letters from my Great Grandmother to the War Office seeking information about his where abouts made me weep unashamedly. I have a lump in my throat writing this.

 

So yes I will remember them.

[geocol 10]

.... On November 11th my family and I will be at Ploogesteert Memorial in Belgium where my Uncle Fred is commemorated, he died in 1918 aged 18 serving with the 11th East Yorks.

 

Over the past twenty five years, I have visited numerous locations in the Ieper Salient; The Somme and Verdun, having passed dozens of cemeteries whilst en route to Paris on a coach trip, and deciding to go back and explore further.

 

I have walked along the track leading into the forest at Ploegsteert Wood on two occasions, both in the stark silence of midwinter; and to the sound of singing birds in the total contrast of midsummer.

 

On both occasions, I found the experience of walking past the hundreds of shell holes either side of the track (usually filled with water) to be deeply haunting; (far more so than in other more open locations, where perhaps greater numbers of men perished).

 

This maybe because it is now still possible to easily imagine and reflect upon the horror which unfolded there, rather than at locations which have been partly rebuilt/landscaped.

 

I have a strong feeling one of my GFs was there (the London regiment with which he served suffered horrendous casualties both there and at nearby Messines.) Alas, he died when I was only a child, and as I never found his records during the two days I spent searching through all those of the same name in the microfiche archives at Kew, I suspect his were amongst the 60% destroyed in an air raid in WW2, and that I will never find out.

 

Cat, I sincerely hope that you and your family discover that consoling feeling of being close to your uncle, at the eleventh hour (especially if you haven’t been there before), and I hope your trip is problem free.

[paul20 10]

Shall we remember what war is?

 

What is war?

In the human psyche

it is the fatal flaw,

a perversion of the human mind,

using our greatest brains to create

outrageous threats to all mankind.

 

War is

the profoundest disrespect

for the sanctity

of human life,

the ultimate in racism,

the collapse of morality.

 

War is

the ultimate in criminality,

the ultimate obscenity,

the ultimate crime against humanity.

 

So shall we honour war?

and shall we now praise troubled men?

Or shall we remember what war is

and give true meaning

to "Never again" ?

[smiths565 10]

Lest We Forget.

 

At 11am on the 11th November 1918, guns fell silent on the Western Front in France and Belgium ending four years of continuous war in Europe and the Middle East.

 

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the moment the fighting ceased has become universally associated with the remembrance of those who died in the war, the "war to end all wars".

 

I have been researching the men from Sheffield who gave their lives in World War One.

 

The result of this research, which still continues, can be found on

 

http://www.stannington.webitsmart.co.uk/

 

Please take time on Saturday, to remember the brave men, who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

 

They shall not grow old, as we who 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 shall remember them.

 

Please feel free to sign my guest book and leave your thoughts.

 

Kind Regards

 

Robert.

[brailz 10]

Wear your poppy with pride! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: