Funny, I sent a whole heap of WWI stuff to an Aussie relative (distant in more ways than one) concerning 2 brothers, their cousin, and their cousin's father in law, all of whom died on 4 different ships within hours of each other at the naval battle of Jutland, 1916. This is her reply:

"Dear Liz, It is only the second time I have heard an English person speak of people lost in the war. I have had lots of Australian cousins who were killed in France, and (another relation)had a family killed by a bomb, but I wondered if there were so many English deaths that people still find it too painful to mention. Of the 30 people who went over to England with my brother in WWII, only 2 came home, so I would have expected a lot of casualties in England."

I can't be the only one who openly admits the debt we owe these people can I? I was instrumental in our church not dropping the Act of Remembrance, and have held it myself, and the 2 minutes silence on Armistice Day, regardless of where I was or who I was with - even to the extent of telling an interviewer I would be 5 minutes late and giving the reason!

Possibly it's because I used to work in a military museum and have read the war diaries still stained with the mud and blood of Ypres, Mons, Popperinge, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli and Kut el Amara.

Possibly it's because a close family death affected me at an early age, my brother went out one morning and never came back.

Possibly it's because my father and grandfather never let me forget the parts they had to play in the next war.

LTS