Remembrance

Armistice Day is on the 11th November and is also known as Remembrance Day.  It marks the day when World War One ended at 11 a.m. on the 11th month in 1918.  A two minutes silence is held at 11 a.m. to remember those who died in wars.  Remembrance Sunday is also marked each year and falls on the 2nd Sunday in November. It's a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states to remember the armed forces who have died in the line of duty. In the United States of America Armistice Day is known and marked as Veterans Day.

This year because of the coronavirus and the fact that England is in lockdown commemoration gatherings in large numbers are not possible.  Instead those who wish to show their support have been asked to remember in a different way.  Suggestions include standing on the doorstep to observe the two minutes silence, watch the dedicated programmes on the television and wear a poppy which is now a symbol of remembrance on this special day.  This is what Mr P and I did on Sunday and will do so again today. 

The above collage is of the World War One Memorial in the local parish church yard where there are other Commonwealth War Commission graves and poppies displayed at the moment by the schoolchildren at a school in my home town - (photo taken and sent to me by our daughter). 

We will remember them

Remembering

Today is a Bank Holiday when we remember the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.  It's a poignant day even more so because I've just received a phone call to say that we've suffered a bereavement in the family. I've learnt that my Great Aunt Rose's son died at the family home in Berkshire on Wednesday.  He had not been well for some time. My first cousin, once removed, would correspond by letter and he would give me information about the family to further my family history research.

The reason I'm writing about V.E. Day is because I was born two weeks after this momentous event in a nursing home in Reading, Berkshire.  My Mum had been very ill during her pregnancy so it was the best place to give birth. I didn't weigh much at birth and it was touch and go that I survived. I was christened not long after in June, according to my Mum's baby book diary.  Meanwhile my Dad was still over in mainland Europe moving up through various countries and as part of the war effort witnessed the liberation of a concentration camp.  I have the published papers of the history of this period of the route taken across Europe written up later by Dad's regimental commander.  When Dad eventually got back to England many months later he was, of course, a changed man and I was several months old.  We were still living with my grandparents whilst my mother managed the bakery business before my grandparents eventually bought a new house in Earley, which was outside the Borough of Reading. Here we continued to live together with my maternal grandparents for quite a few years.  (I've written about this time before).

Here's a collage of me as a new born baby, a few months old sitting in my maternal grandparents' Earley garden and as\ young child on an English seaside holiday or other events with my parents and with Dad and my doll's pram in my other Grandma's garden in the King's Road in Reading ....

Our Berkshire daughter took some flowers up to my parents', grandparents' and  uncles' graves. They are all buried near one another in a Caversham, Berkshire cemetery and she sent me a photo by email of the flowers.  The staff were cutting the grass around the graves, which was a good thing and daughter D took photos of two pheasants, male and female, that were wandering around.

Well, that's all for today.  I'm going out for another walk and the rest of the day will be a quiet one thinking and remembering days gone by with my family.

Thank you for your visit.  I hope you have a peaceful day and weekend.

Remembrance: Armistice Day

Today 101 years since the end of  World War I, Armistice Day, we remember the sacrifices men and women made then and since in order that we might live in freedom.

Memorials of Remembrance in our city centre and local country villages. 

Lest We Forget

This Sunday the 11th November is Armistice Day when this year we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI.  During this weekend we also remember all those who have lost their lives as well as those who have been affected as a consequence of wars and conflicts up until the present day. 

A particularly poignant reminder of the 1914-1918 was the public installation in 2014 at the Tower of London which consisted of 888,246 handmade ceramic poppies each one representing someone killed in WWI.  The installation was called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red and the title was taken from the line of a poem by an unknown WWI soldier from Derbyshire who joined up in the early days of the war and died at the Front. The poem was contained in the soldier's unsigned will and found by the ceramic artist Paul Cummins among old records in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.  The artwork was created by Cummins and the designer Tom Piper. At around sunset each day between the 1st September and the 10th November the names of service personnel were read aloud by a Yeoman Warder of the Tower of London or a guest reader followed by the Last Post bugle call.  I was unable to go to London, but a friend sent me photos and gave me a picture (above) which hangs above the desk in our living room and means a lot to me. 

Since then, between 2015 and 2018, sections of the installation called Wave and Weeping Window have been installed at significant buildings around England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

One of the nearest sites was The Silk Mill, Derby.  Again I was unable to go to Derby, but my DiL took photographs for me. Poppies: Weeping Window was a cascade of several thousand of the handmade ceramic poppies.  During WWI Derby Silk Mill was divided into two businesses, one grinding corn and the other making medical supplies, both integral to the war effort and scarce by 1916. 

(A similar tribute Beyond the Deepening Shadow, in which 10,000 flames have been lit at the Tower of London each evening this year, 2018, ending tomorrow (Armistice Day) has been installed to mark the centenary of the end of the war).

Nearer to home we were able to visit High Bradfield, which is the next village to our own. At St. Nicholas' Church poppy images were projected onto the building in the evenings before the 11th November. School children researched their own family history and made tiles which were placed in the churchyard.  It's so important that the younger generations continue to learn about the past and about the consequences of conflict.

St Nicholas' Church, High Bradfield

Over the weekend we'll watch the television broadcasts as the Queen leads the nation in acts of remembrance and tomorrow we shall be at a Remembrance Day service at our parish church. I will think of my Great Uncle Arthur, a casualty of the Somme, who died aged 20 and whose name is included on the Thiepval Memorial, France a section of which is for those who have no known grave. Also for my grandfather, Thomas Henry, who's buried in Le Cateau Military Cemetery, France cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  He died of his wounds on the 17th December 1917 aged 35 leaving two daughters and a pregnant wife.  My father was born on the 27th November 1917. Official news of both men, as was common, was not given until many months later in 1918.  I treasure the letters that previously my grandfather had sent to his wife and his sisters and the card with embroidered flowers on it that was sent to his sister, my maternal grandmother, Lauretta ('Ettie') by Great Uncle Arthur. 

Angel's Trumpet, Remembrance Day

On our way back from our morning in Sora we stopped by the Fibreno, a tributary of the Liri, another river that flows through the area and is a good water resource for the farms thereabouts.   There are several garden centres that we've used in the past, but this time we didn't visit any despite being tempted to browse rather than buy! It's disappointing that I can't grow the flowering plants that I once did when living permanently in Italy. I have to be content with the shrubs that don't need much maintenance other than pruning, the rose bushes as well as the irises and bulbs that lie dormant until they flower in their season.

Walking over the bridge and past the house (above) I spotted a magnificent specimen of a flowering shrub, the brugmansia (angel's trumpet). It was very photogenic, but I've since read up about it and it's one that I wouldn't want to grow in my garden as apparently all parts of the plant are poisonous with the seeds and leaves being dangerous and the sap being an irritant.

Across the way is the 11th century Abbey of San Domenico which was built on the ruins of a country villa belonging to Cicero's family. (More about the monastery church next time).

The main entrance door of San Domenico Abbey

REMEMBERING 

Today, as we remember the 100th anniversary of the Great War we continue to reflect and give thanks for our freedom due to the courage of those who served their country then and for all war veterans, past and present. It's difficult to put into words how I feel at this time due to my own personal sadness for the grandfather I never knew, killed in battle in France in December 1917 and who never knew my father born days beforehand, but I take comfort in knowing I share in the act of remembrance and gratitude that 'they died that we might live in freedom' with millions of others throughout the world.

Remembrance

At this time we remember those who sacrificed their lives in times of conflict, past and present, that we might live in freedom.  We also remember those who continue to suffer through the consequences of war, for those who support them and for all who work for peace and reconciliation in the troubled places of the world.