WW1 Centenary: What will you be doing by way of remembrance?

If what is intended proves possible, then I shall be attending the Commemoration Service at the War Memorial at St Izaire, a small village in the Aveyron in France. I intend to lay a wreath of poppies to Honour my Father and his Comrades who endured the unspeakable horrors of the Great War: remembering that generation of men and women that surrounded me as a boy in a town that one in ten of its menfolk were killed. I shall in particular remember a War Widow who lived the rest of her life unmarried and childless, who it could be said, sadly but proudly, showed courage and cheerfulness in the years that followed, her bravery of spirit an inspiration.

How could one not stand and fight when our way of life bequeath to us by such a brave generation was threatened yet again by a war-minded Germany?

And crowding in on all these memories will be remembrance and tears about so very many faces of young men who felt as I did and by their example of determined courage and by their bravery helped me to face up to whatever the cost.

Yes, that wreath of poppies will be full of meaning as I bow down to lay it at St Izaire.

Joe Brown.

 

Hopefully I'll be doing something with my son, not sure what as he isn't born yet I have ordered a Remembrance Baby Hat with a poppy on for his first parade this November though.

 

After a long telephone conversation tonight it would appear I might be getting involved with the Essex Commemoration Project in a small way.
Briefly several like-minded people have researched local war memorials for several years and hope to get omissions and errors on war memorials within the London Borough of Havering corrected by August 2014.
Obviously it is not a straightforward subject and it is complicated by changed Borough boundaries over the years.
Also the London Borough of Havering have been a bit slow out of the blocks (several adjacent Boroughs are months ahead of them) and, with only 11 months to go, it might be difficult to get the glacier-like wheels moving to get finance and procurement in place.
Still, I will help in any way I can as it is such a worthwhile project.

 

As some members of this forum will already know for a number of years I was involved with compiling a 'Roll of Honour', effectively a 'Book of Remembrance' for the Cleator & Cleator Moor area of West Cumbria from the Boer War until the present day. It was completed for Remembrance Sunday 2012. This was in good time for both the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WW1 and the 75th anniversary of the beginning of WW2 (both in 2014).

The town's population in 1901 was about 8,000 (about 7,000 in 2001). There are 358 known casualties listed in the Roll of Honour, of which about 2/3 of the total (241) lost their lives during WW1. By comparison, during WW2 there were 103 service casualties and 2 civilian deaths.

Almost all of the 358 have been correctly identified. For most of them there is a short biography and, where possible, a photograph. Unfortunately, thus far it has proved impossible to correctly identify 5 (i.e. 2%) of those who died in WW1. Their names appear on one or other of the local war memorials. Thus, if nothing else, their name is remembered in perpetuity.

Worthy of remembrance.

 

World War 1 - Pathe:


http://www.britishpathe.com/workspaces/page/ww1-the-definitive-collection

 

The members on the British Medal Forum have been discussing this issue and are hoping to remember at least one WW1 veteran on each of the days throughout the full period of the war. A large undertaking as you can imagine.

The thoughts are that the information should relate to a casualty, act of gallantry or specific action or battle directly related to the date in question. I hope to contribute at some point and I wish them well.

 

Hopefully these good people will get the funding they deserve to restore and manage the Sutton Down badges, in Wiltshire:

http://www.sutton-down-badges.com/

These two badges are of the 7th (City of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (known as the ‘Shiny Seventh’) and the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, both c 1916.

Now completely obscured by vegetation, both badges were last clealry visible about 25 years ago.

The trust hopes to win funding to restore the badges in 2015 and to manage them for the future.

CS

 

Its a big year for a lot of us with the 100th and all.

A couple of things I have done is plan another walk & Talk in St.Helens Cemetery focusing on the WW1 Casualties buried there.
This will be over the Armistice Weekend and open to groups of about 30 or so.
More than a few interesting Stories to tell.......

The Friends Of St.Helens Cemetery have also worked with the Council to plant out a Poppy Field in the Cemetery. A plaque will be unveiled to commemorate this and the 100th anniversary.

Speaking of poppies, I attended the Royal British Legion awards ceremony to honour the local Cadet units in the North West for all of their splendid work in raising money via the various Poppy appeals throughout the year.
As a guest speaker I made a short film to illustrate the sacrifice of local men buried in the Cemetery...... here it is for anyone interested.... had to speak before the Lord Lt of Merseyside, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and another half a dozen local Mayors.... the event went very well though and everyone appreciated what the film illustrated!.

CK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJtdMNMww1I

 

Another Gov initiative is to get people to wear the relative's WW1 medals (On the right side) at oncoming functions.
Several Veterans where I paraded on armed forces day were wearing their own and Grandfathers WW1 medals .
I think that was very nice.

 

Will be out of Europe in August this year but will certainly be thinking of my dad's father, a pre-War Regular, and his brothers. He landed at Le Havre on 17th August 1914, was made PoW at the battle of Le Cateau on the 26th, and subsequently endured four years of near-starvation and forced labour in captivity. It's a sobering thought that he was one of the lucky ones - of his three brothers who served in the First World War, two were killed in action aged 23 and 20 years old.

Rest In Peace 14413 L/Cpl Herbert Atkins 2/Royal Fusiliers, and 1311 L/Sgt William Atkins 1/23 London Regt; also their comrades who fought and died with them.

 

My local borough, Richmond-upon-Thames has sown small poppy fields in most of our parks and green spaces, they have just started to bloom. I found this photographic website online showing some of these places. They are very striking.

http://www.demotix.com/news/5153480/poppies-flower-richmond-marking-centenary-start-ww1/all-media

 

This is something I have been working on for a while. I believe the battlefields matter. It is not enough to stand around war memorials and consider the men as lost inj some form of natural disaster solely through the lens of the media.

1. Visiting the battlefields helps to understand what the servicemen and women did and why
2. Our war dead lie in foreign fields. On the centenary someone should visit each of the graves, not just doe some cyber research or send some money to lay a cross somewhere in Britain. ."In perpetuity" is an interesting legal; term. If we cannot be bothered to visit the war dead, why should we expect Belgium and France to turn over land to the purpose?
3. Visiting the battlefields tells something about the places these men fell to save or liberate. We should see what modern Belgium, France Turkey etc make it and be seen to take part. It is a shame that so many battlefields are better known as Australian, Canadian or New Zealand because the Britis can't be bothered.

The provisions for funding for the centenary have changed to allow Heritage Lottery Fund Centenary wards to be used to support overseas travel if this is not the sole purpose of the project. It hasn't been highlighted or widely promoted. But the details are on my blog here. . http://www.theobservationpost.com/blog/?p=330

 

Redtop:

I shall be wearing on my right breast my Father's Medals. It will be the first time I have done so, having always felt they were the sole privilege of my Dad who had endured much and finished his War with his sight badly impaired, sustained in a gas attack.

This year to me is special as I, now 93, dearly want to demonstrate my heartfelt pride in him and his generation. To Remember their gallant bravery, courage and sheer guts in enduring the hellish conditions of trench warfare and the fearful odds they faced when the whistle sounded for them to 'go over the top' to face the enemy's deadly fire power as they charged forward in their frontal attacks.

Joe Brown.

 

Cleator and Cleator Moor (Cumbria) commemorations of the 1914 centenary of WW1:

To commemorate all those from the district of Cleator and Cleator Moor who lost their lives in the 'Great War' of 1914 - 1919 Cleator Moor Town Council has re-published the names and posted it to the council website. This is a link to the relevant document:
http://www.cleatormoor-tc.org.uk/cleator-moor-town-council-remembers-world-war-ones-fallen-heros-cleator-cleator-moor/