Remembrance Sunday (UK)

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:00 AM

Poem 212 of 230: REMEMBER THEM?

Back when we became defenders
    (We have plainly been attackers),
Defenders' blood, sweat and years
    Were paid to keep a good home-way -
A way yet to be part stealth-blown,
    As mass immigration gained-sway
And as we slipped as maintainers.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:45 AM

It doesn't have to be compared.

This thread shows that we can be brilliant at remembering our war dead.

The fact we still keep going to war and letting soldiers be unnecessarily killed shows we learn nothing from it.

That's all.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:41 AM

better/worse

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:05 AM

Compared to which other nations that are worse?

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 03:20 AM

A letter in Monday's Guardian said:

Why, as a nation, are we so brilliant at remembering and so hopeless at learning?

I'd go along with that.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 03:02 AM

I will comment.
Anti war sentiments are noble and commendable every day of the year.
We only have one day of Rememberance.
On that one day can we just express gratitude and sorrow for the sacrifices made by members of the armed forces in past and present conflicts?

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 09:39 PM

The long prayer

Link posted without comment.

DeG

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: GUEST,Pistachio - unplugged
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 07:07 PM

Tears falling -
Such sorrow
Lets think of each and every one
Tomorrow









Hazel.x

Subject: Lyr Add: THEY'RE BRINGING MY SON HOME TODAY
From: Sugwash
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 05:25 AM

THEY'RE BRINGING MY SON HOME TODAY
©J.A.Sugden March 2007

As I sit on his bed I remember his smile,
They're bringing my son home today,
In this photo he's beaming, surrounded by mates,
They're bringing my son home.
His birth was a hard one, the wife suffered and how;
We'd not have another, we both made that vow.
But the pain she felt then is nothing to what she feels now.
They're bringing my son home today.

There's an interview with his old headmaster,
They're bringing my son home today,
He's saying he was a popular student,
They're bringing my son home.
But he was in trouble from first to last;
Our hopes of university quickly passed.
When the police were involved his mum was aghast.
They're bringing my son home today.

After school he just drifted,
They're bringing my son home today,
From dole to dead-end job and back,
They're bringing my son home.
Then out of the blue he'll be a marine.
The wife was in hysterics and causing a scene.
I encouraged him, God help me, "Go serve the Queen".
They're bringing my son home today.

He loved it, all the training,
They're bringing my son home today,
The hard graft and camaraderie,
They're bringing my son home.
Then training was ended and come the day,
The look on his face when he got his green beret.
We were both so proud he'd found his own way.
They're bringing my son home today.

Then he's off on his first deployment,
They're bringing my son home today,
To a land far from this English shore,
They're bringing my son home.
He relished the action; it's what he'd joined for.
Part of an elite, the esprit de corps.
Then one evening, the knock on our door
They're bringing my son home today.

Downing Street expresses regrets.
They're bringing my son home today.
Politicians spouting platitudes.
They're bringing my son home.
His C.O., more honest, says "He was a good bloke.
Always stood by his mates; always ready with a joke."
The wife is in pieces, I think her heart's broke
They're bringing my son home today.

There're flowers outside the barracks gate
They're bringing my son home today
The Union flag flies at half-mast
They're bringing my son home
An old man pauses, then throws a salute
They'll say my son died serving his country; that I'll dispute
He died serving a policy dreamt up by a suit
They're bringing my son home today.

The bugle will play the Last Post,
They're bringing my son home today,
As they carry him slowly down the ramp.
They're bringing my son home.
I've watched that scene too often before,
But this time it's my son, a by-product of a lousy war.
Can somebody tell me just what he died for?
They're bringing my son home today,
They're bringing my son home today,
They're bringing my son home.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 05:00 AM

I could not dig, I dare not rob,
Therefore I lied to please themob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
                               R.Kipling

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 04:30 AM

In my new church, the names of the dead are inscribed in the east wall, behind the altar (the original church was built in 1909 and the present building a few years later), where they can be always seen, not just thought of on one or two days a year.

We had the Last Post played for us, and most poignant for me, sang 'Eternal Father, strong to save' - for those in peril on the sea. 4 members of my family; 2 brothers, their cousin and a father in law were all killed in 24 hours in 1916, at the Battle of Jutland, their only grave, the sea.

I shall stop at 11.00am tomorrow, wherever I am, as I always have done since I worked in a military museum. Reading the actual war diaries, some stained with the mud and blood of Flanders, brought it all much nearer than any moving documentary or patriotic (jingoistic?) ceremony. These country men didn't go to fight for their monarch or a flag on a pole, they went to keep their mothers, their sisters, their wives and children safe. Again and again and again.

LTS

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 03:30 AM

I don,t know why but on Friday I was very sad and had a sudden urge to pay respects to our servicemen who have made and are still making great sacrifices, this video is my humble result.

My Grandson is a marine now!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvVyTY7X0f8

whb

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 03:01 AM

I was at the service in Barnet as usual.
There were more people attending than usual.
Many people clapped the TA contingent as they marched past.
As usual, the vicar said no prayers for, or even mentioned in church, the armed forces past or present.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: GUEST,A Poem From the First Gulf War
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 02:28 AM

Once again, the politicians,
Whose only talent is for lying,
Send young men to do what they dare not do,
And do their killing and their dying.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:31 PM

What other songs?

Loads. But I'd settle for this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17FqGboh4-A

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: gnu
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:03 PM

Lest we forget.

The bus... thanks.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: bruceCMR
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:00 PM

Celtic Music Radio, like most other broadcasters, observed the silence.

Leading up to 11, we played Dick Gaughan's recording of Hamish Henderson's "51st (Highland) Division's Farewell To Sicily"

After the silence - which was actually the ambient noise from the presenter's garden in Fife - we had Eric Bogle's own recording of his "No Man's Land" ("The Green Fields of France")

What other songs of our genre would be appropriate?

Bruce.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:48 PM

It was the first time that there were no veterans of the first world war but there were increased numbers at the Cenotaph.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: the fence
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:38 PM

I have never seen so many people at the Cenotaph in Louth. I would think it was the same throughout the whole of the U.K.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:33 PM

The troops themselves believe in God...despite all they are having to endure....and the crowds at The Cenotaph were far greater than normal...

Remembrance Sunday in Afghanistan - Youtube


And here's to Harry Patch...and Harry Farr...

Harry Patch

Harry Farr

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:31 PM

I took part in the Remembrance Parade at Worksop War Memorial today. There was a good turnout and MOST of the people there were there to pay homage to those who paid such a terrible price for our freedom. Sadly the Last Post and Two Minute silence were totally wrecked by two young lads (about 8-10 years old) who kicked up one hell of a noise which disrupted everything. They were chasing each other and screaming and laughing whilst their mother just stood by and ignored them.

Amazingly, the little brats then walked calmly to the memorial and placed little crosses with someone's name on them. Maybe I'm intolerent but wouldn't you have thought their parents would have briefed them and insisted on good behaviour?

Blessings
Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: the fence
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:24 PM

when I look at all the pain in this world I wonder if there is a God. If there is, then may that God protect our heroes.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:18 PM

Today, I got on my bus to go to work. It was one minute to eleven.

A minute later, the bus stopped again. The driver pulled over and from his cab came the sound of the music being played at the Cenotaph...then the silence, broken only by the worried, whispered voice of the little girl in the front...

"What's happening, Mummy?"

"Shhhhhhhhh, darling.....We're staying quiet to think about the soldiers who've died in wars for us. Today is a special day when we do that."

"Why do we do that, Mummy?"

"Because it's important, now hush for a little while longer."


And silence returned to the bus.


Then.....the Silence was over...and the driver started his engine again....as we set off for town once more.

It's the first time I've ever been on a bus at that time, ever seen one stopped...and it felt so right. The British Legion have done a wonderful job in bringing back respect for this day.

Meanwhile, over in Afghanistan, two more soldiers woke to their last ever day, unknowingly to die on a day when so many of their comrades were already being thought about..

And right now, having heard this terrible news of two more lives cut short, in a war which seems to make no sense, have no reason, I can only start to imagine how their families must be feeling.

May they all somehow find peace.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:52 AM

That was Leon Rosselson's REMEMBRANCE DAY, spelled 'Remembrance.

Subject: Lyr Add: REMEMBRANCE DAY (Leon Rosselson)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:49 AM

REMEMBRANCE DAY
Written by Leon Rosselson
As recorded by Leon Rosselson on "Turning Silence into Song" (2004)

It was Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph.
The rain was falling fast.
The Queen was there with her entourage,
Watching the old comrades march past.

There were wreaths of scarlet flowers,
And we wore our poppies with pride.
The brass bands played funeral music.
And one or two people cried.

When Big Ben chimed eleven,
We solemnly bared our heads
And stood for the two-minute silence
To remember the glorious dead.

It was at that sacred moment
That I heard an eerie sound.
A ghastly ghostly stirring
Seemed to come from under the ground,

And a voice rose up out of the darkness,
A voice that was coarse and ill-bred,
Saying: "I am the voice of the fallen,
And I am the voice of the dead.

"I speak for the silent slaughtered,
The ones who rot under the grass,
And we don't want your two-minute silence,
So stuff it up your arse."

Then I thought I heard an explosion,
And a kind of a sob or a laugh,
And a faint aroma of corpses
Hung round the Cenotaph.

The Queen stood straight as a ramrod,
And none of the mourners stirred.
In spite of the two-minute silence,
No one had heard a word.

Though it seems a small bunch of fanatics
Had tried to dishonour the day
By shouting, "Remember Iraq!"*
But they were soon hustled away.

Then the two-minute silence was over,
And we heard the wind and the rain,
And from Horse Guards Parade, a gun sounded.
Normal life started again.

It was Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph.
The Queen was dressed in black,
And the bishop conducted a service
For the ones who never came back.

[* An earlier version of the song had "Remember Biafra."]

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:40 AM

We sang Les Sullivan's Roses of No Man's Land - which we recorded on Remembrance Sunday last year - at the Haddenham concert yesterday evening.

Kitty and Derek

Subject: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:48 AM

Thank you, to all of you.