11th of the 11th of the 11th

[Bruce Scott]

In Australia poppy sales begin in the week prior to what is now Remembrance Day.
The money raised is used to help serving and ex-serving members of the ADF who are in need

On the day, veterans and others will gather at the many war memorials throughout the country for a short service, wreath laying and the traditional two minutes silence.

When I was a youngster, in a small country town in WA, a siren sounded at 11:00. In addition to the official service at the memorial, school children assembled at the flagstaff, cars stopped in the street and the occupants alighted, people paused in whatever they were doing to stand silently and . . . . remember.



Poppies on the Wall of Remembrance at the National War Memorial, Canberra.

"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."
Laurence Binyon

[Father Bill]

Bruce, the Royal Canadian Legion often quotes the poem you have cited at the end of our services and refers to it as "The Act of Remembrance."

[Bruce Scott]

Father Bill, It is the fourth stanza of Binyon's poem For the Fallen and in Australia it is now known simply as 'The Ode' - from 'The Ode of Remembrance'. Likewise, it is always recited at the conclusion of our services, all present respond, "We will remember them".

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/laur...the-fallen.htm

[Father Bill]

Same response here.

Australia and Canada do have some similar heritage though, don't we now!

[Bruce Scott]

We do indeed !!

[duke_19_62]

While I am a proud Life Member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the USA (Post 352 Mililani, Hawaii), I find the poppies the VFW gives out a little cheap and cheesy.




So I wear a British Legion poppy that a friend in England sent to me.


It just seems to be a better product.


Also, I work in a warehouse, so the paper poppy would be a bit impractical. I have a small pin version of the British poppy I wear on the collar of my company-provided polo shirts for the entire month of November.

[Tarheel]

I agree that the VFW poppies are "less than standard". There was a reason; being the mass production issue. Then, as many things in the US, the attention span shifted except for the thoughtful, families of veterans and when the media reminded the unaware.

I commend any effort of the VFW to keep a tradition alive.

[Jock Scot]

Thank you Stobie for your kind reply but I hate to correct you Sir, its hour, day, month here maybe its different in your neck of the woods. Kit

I think the British way is hour, day, month and if required, year, I am not sure what the rest of Europe do, but as per usual it seems to be done differently in North America? It certainly seems to be an American thing. Mrs Jock has the date printed on her photographs automatically and I really find the month coming first very confusing.

We have just returned from spending three days on the Somme in France. Beautiful weather, beautiful surroundings and the farming is impressive, but it could not hide the awful human waste that occurred there in 1916. I have been before, but as I am now a lot older I find the beautifully maintained military cemeteries that are so close together all rather emotional. It was brought home when we drove across the battlefield from one side to the other at the widest point of advance after some 5 months of continuous fierce fighting and it took us just over 5 minutes!

I am trying to download some pictures but it seems my computer and photobucket are not talking to each other.

The poppy was worn with pride by us, a wreath of poppies was laid at the Thiepval Monument where over seventy two thousand names(British and Commonwealth) of those who fell in that battle who have no known grave are remembered. Sadly my family have a name placed there. On another day a single poppy was placed on a post in the nearest fifty acres of where he fell near Gommecourt on the first day of the battle and what did we see by the post that was chosen(with the amazing help of google earth) as "the place"? A wild poppy, still in flower, growing there. A tough one that.

"Lest we forget."

[Finistere]

Thank you Jock Scot for your reply, the way the dates are written here is both ways, day first and then sometimes month first which is very confusing, I think that the month first is due to the fact that they teach the kids in schools and colleges American English, I was always taught "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month". Kit

[Geoff Withnell]

Here in the Washington DC area, the several posts of the Scottish American Military Society meet in the early morning, and we go the WWI, WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War memorials, with a color guard, and place a wreath on each memorial. This year, as my hip is not functioning well, I will not be participating, except in spirit. The last few years, we have mostly been wearing poppies.