Well worth remembering... Have we learned anything from the waste of so many young men? Look at Iraq and Afghanistan and you get your answer...
I'm meeting up with some friends tonight, a good friend and musician has written an album of songs commemorating WW1 and is performing them by candlelight at a nearby pub between 10 and 11. We may do some other acoustic stuff as well - rather than have the whole evening completely sombre - but the main element is the chance to reflect and remember. 100 years sounds like a long time, but cosmically speaking it's just a blip, so it's important that their sacrifices are not consigned to history books alone...
This is the one that concerns me the most. Frankly, the best way to honour the fallen of WWI and other campaigns is to not let ourselves get sucked headlong into armed conflict when it can be avoided. Unfortunately the certifiable idiots that we repeatedly elect to govern us time and time again fail to learn the lessons of the past and send in your father, your husband, your brother or your son to pay the ultimate price so that these vain inadequates can appear statesmanlike and secure their place in history.
These are two very moving songs about WW1 [video=youtube;Kr6OzLJrS2k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr6OzLJrS2k[/video] [video=youtube;cZqN1glz4JY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY[/video]
Can someone answer me a question I was asked today and got me thinking..... When do we as a nation, stop remembrance of WW1 ?? Is this just a big thing 'cos it's 100 years or will the remembrance go on forever. I mean, we don't commemorate the soldiers who died in, for example , the English Civil War, Boer War or the countless other wars fought before in the name of our country. So when does it become respectful to stop paying remembrance ? This is in no way a political question and I wouldn't want a debate as such just it was something I didn't have an answer to.
Staines A very good question, maybe it is the scale of the war it being a World War rather that is the answer, I don't really know. I do know I will be turning off my lights between 10 and 11 pm and lighting a candle to remember those that sacrificed their lives. But that is just me.
I think it has something to do with the fact that there are still people alive today with connections to WWI. Sadly those connections are now memories of fathers and grandfathers, rather than us still having veterans with us. My paternal grandfather, a simple British Tommy, was gassed on the Somme and invalided out of the war. But for that I guess there would have been a strong possibility that he would've been killed at a later stage in the conflict, which would've meant my father wouldn't have come into being, and therefore no me and no Uberlings. I was fortunate enough to have known him before he left us when I was a mere 6 or 7 years old.
My paternal grandfather from Bradiston Road, West Kilburn (1st gen R) served in France 1916-1919 with the Royal Engineers Siege Battalion. He passed away when I was only six so never had the opportunity to discuss those WWI years with him. My father (2nd gen R) served with the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters Regiment) 1939-45 and lost his four closest friends in WWII. For myself (3rd gen R), I was luccky to miss out in participating in another world war, although as a teenager in grammar school with compulsory CCF on Fridays I quickly learnt how to shoot a Lee Enfield 303 rifle straight and attained my marksman certification badge at the first attempt with a score of 47/50 shooting from 150 yards then 300 yards using the battle sight - still not sure how I managed that!
