1 July 1916.

[Harold Cannon]

God grant us the day that we shall see no more fighting! "Lest we forget".

[Dixiecat]

Yes, Canada Day is also a sombre occasion in Newfoundland. It was always moving to see the memorials of that day and go onto the Canada Day celebrations.
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/canada/memorial-day

[creagdhubh]

Lest we forget.

[James Hood]

Eternal honour to the fallen, to those left with wounds, to those who had to live with the horrible memories.

[Pleater]

I think that in every place in the UK larger than a hamlet which existed in 1918 has a memorial to the fallen or a carved stone in the parish church, or both.
Most families have a family tree affected by the Great war.

My father's father was tiny, well under 5ft, but he had the pick of the girls as none of the men came back to the village, and the pick of houses, as there were few new families.

My mother's mother was married and had two children when her husband was killed on the Somme, she remarried and lost two children in an epidemic - I think of diptheria - just after the Great war ended.

It was described at the time as a war to end wars, and there were to be 'homes fit for heroes' to replace the slums, the national health service was envisaged and financial help was given to mothers and widower fathers or other carers, as so many adult men were found to be unfit for military service due to disease or infirmity, or like my grandfather simply too small.

The Great War shaped modern Britain and the welfare state.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Salvianus]

Remembered, one and honoured all.

Houseman's most famous piece "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries' was technically referring to the tiny professional British Expeditionary Force, the ‘Old Contemptibles’ although it was only published in the Times in 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres, ‘Passchendaele'. However, it is much misunderstood and I prefer to contribute:


Peace is come and wars are over,
Welcome you and welcome all,
While the charger crops the clover
And his bridle hangs in stall.

Now no more of winters biting
Filth in trench from fall to spring,
Summers full of sweat and fighting
For the Kesar or the King.

Rest you, charger, rust you, bridle;
Kings and Kesars, keep your pay;
Soldier, sit you down and idle
At the inn of night for aye.

A.E. Houseman, Last Poems: VIII (published in 1922)

[sailortats]

All gave some and some gave all, and none shall be forgotten

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead, Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fiields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies
grow in Flanders fields.

Hard to type this with tears in your eyes but I think I corrected my typing errors.

[georgeetta]

I think 1 in 3 men in the army in ww1 in scotland were killed .

Uncle david and uncle tommy [youngsons] were in the gordon highlanders from aberdeen ..uncle tommy's hand was roughed up from shrapnel . I think tommy'd just been old (auld) enough to join .

Breaker morant was boer war in south africa just fyi .

When we were kids at parties ..all the men broke off and it was basically an army reunion swapping stories .

D

[Pleater]

When Hull (East coast of Yorkshire) burned there was a call for anyone able to go and help fight the fires.

In York they could see the glow in the sky at night and the smoke by day, and smell it all the time.

My uncle Stan went - then after three days they found out he should be at school and sent him home. My mother remembered him ariving with all his clothes scorched and no hair at the front of his head, nor any eyebrows where he'd been singed by the flames.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[georgeetta]

there was a bbc series set in scotland during ww1 .

the focus was I think about the wives and those at home hearing news and continuing on whilel men were across fighting ..TV is not history but rather than not imagine and not read up ..some good portraylas can help ..if you haven't been raised in a Scottish household or family circle POST world War hearing the tongues ..the phrases ..the banter ..it's a quick way to get acquainted ..

it was set in the country either a farm of an estate ..

Also there was a great disaster in Hebrides when returning men to the islands ship sank and hundreds of .......well those men coudln't be replaced there ..a whole generation of Islesmen gone forever .

On Ebay or Ebay,UK there are many men's portraits for their families done before going off ..Gordons ..the various regimenets ..you see how young the men were in their kilts and Tams ..groups of officers ..also a disturbing sight Boer War vintage of men just buryng their comrade .

d