Armistice Day 2013

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At the eleventh hour,

of the eleventh day,

of the eleventh month,

we shall remember them

“Lest We Forget”

Yesterday I read another blog which stated that we are at a stage where there is no-one left who remembers losing a friend or relative in the Great War.  However, there must be countless people in their sixties who don’t remember, or barely remember their grandparents or who have a photo such as this.  My grandfather passed away, at the ‘ripe old age of 64’ (I am 62), a week after this photo was taken.  I hope I have more than two years left in me.

Although no-one has ever mentioned it, I often wonder just how much the gas used in World War 1 cut short his life.

My other grandfather, minus a leg, is said to have wept upon hearing of the declaration of World War 2.  He passed away in August 1940.

A few months ago our younger son expressed concern when world peace was looking shaky as tension was building between some countries.  I agreed and also added that he was ‘the right age’.  He looked surprised and had to explain that I was talking about conscription and being dragged into a war against your will.  He had not thought of that.  Many young people are going about their every day life and have little or no knowledge of conscription and I pray that they do not have that experience.

That is why we must never forget.

Click here for Images from World War 1

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Photo Source: http://www.wessexscene.co.uk/features

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day

Armistice Day (which overlaps with Remembrance Day and Veterans Day) is celebrated every year on 11 November to commemorate the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o’clock in the morning—the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. While this official date to mark the end of the war reflects the ceasefire on the Western Front, hostilities continued in other regions, especially across the former Russian Empire and in parts of the old Ottoman Empire.

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