RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: River Tyne Lass on Sunday 08 November 20 10:57 GMT (UK)
-
We only have a few minutes to go, so I thought I would remind people about the Door Step Remembrance today - just in case others might want to participate.
Just some of my own .. R.I.P. John Conroy, Jacob Conroy & Edward Conroy.
Lest We Forget.
-
Yes, I did remember. I was perhaps the only person in the street who did - my remembrance is of my grandfather, Wilfrid Firth Appleyard, who died 7 October 1916 at Le Sars, and is commemorated at Thiepval.
-
Can't post this but youtube has Frankie the Painter, a bugler, inside the new Queensferry Crossing, superb acoustics!
Skoosh.
-
Thanks for this post BumbleB and for letting us know who you were remembering. Thanks for letting us know about this Skoosh.
I saw only one other neighbour out. He had come out in a short dressing gown, bare chest, bare legs. He must have been freezing as he even ventured out down his front path. But good on him .. he remembered. :)
-
OH and I were out and so were the neighbours. Remembered Thomas Capes, KIA 1917 in Arras, France on the "In Memoriam" Thread on the Armed Forces WW1 Board. We also had a Remebrance Day memorial poster in the window and some of the houses had poppies in their windows.
Well done for participating.
Carol
-
I have seen this thread and have posted a comment. You have honoured Thomas Capes beautifully with his history and images.
My local town has a number of knitted poppy displays up - made by the Cullercoats WI. Not just the red ones, but also black, white and purple for the animals.
It is awful to think how many poor animals were drafted in and got killed too. Such as the farm horses which became war horses. I read somewhere once that the ones which survived were put down anyway as it was too much trouble to bring them back.
-
Thanks RTL...we went a couple of years later and I wedged a 1917 penny between the headstones :D
Here is one of our poppy displays on the veranda of the Heritage Centre where I am a volunteer, We also have a book of remembrance for people to leave a message and the details of their lost servicemen and women., not forgetting the civilian war dead too.
Carol
-
I didn't realise I was supposed to be on the doorstep. I have always observed the silence, firstly on the Remembrance programme on the previous evening at the Albert Hall plus on the Cenotaph Service and also on the 11th itself. Just because I wasn't outside didn't mean I forgot!!
rayard.
-
I wasn't aware of it either until I read it in part of a BBC news article. I quickly looked outside and no-one was out so I'm afraid I didn't go out either but I had remembered the occasion. Perhaps it wasn't on the ubiquitous Facebook, so a lot of people wouldn't be aware of the doorstep tribute.
-
I did what I've done for several decades, and that was to watch the Cenataph Ceremony on TV and stand up when Last Post and Reveille is played for the two minutes of silence.
-
We watched the Festival of Remembrance on BBC last evening as usual. It was very poignant.
Our town had a live online service from the church and memorial now on Youtube, showing the laying of wreaths at the various memorials in the districts.
The playing of the Last Post is very moving. I have, hopefully, copied the link here at the right place
https://youtu.be/yv4X8MdTUdQ
The memorial on the hill behind the young man is Pots and Pans where usually crowds of people walk up to remember their loved ones.
-
On youtube enter "Frankie the Painter!"
Skoosh.
-
Carol, what a beautiful poppy display at your Heritage Centre!
Yes, I agree that we should remember the civilians who died as a result of war too too. In fact all our ancestors who had to live through and try to survive such times.
-
I didn't realise I was supposed to be on the doorstep.
Surely it was only a suggestion as to how we might like to mark the 2 minute silence?
I took part in an online service from my church, and participated in the 2 minutes silence in that way.
-
Oh yes, this was just a suggestion I heard about.
My own Church is closed and the local ceremony/service at our Cenotaph was cancelled so I chose to stand on my door step as suggested in news. I am sure people will have chosen to remember in their own way as best suits them. :)
-
I stood on the door step this morning, nobody else did. The traffic was as busy as normal and the people who passed by, briefly looked up from their mobile phones and carried on regardless. Next year I shall remember privately as usual.
rayard.
-
I did go out but would you believe it,the dustbin men were collecting and assembling bins on the corner for the actual container vehicle to come .
Not far from me.I was getting very angry.!
So I went in and stood for the two minutes ,I was watching the service onTV anyway.The 100 th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Lovely poem ,words and tributes from all parts of society.
There was no one else on their steps.
I had a small posy if the big silky poppies.
I wore one droppped on Tyne Cot Cemetery by a plane of the Canadian Airforce ,in October 1967,to Mark the end of the bitter struggle that was
Passchaendaele ,where amongst other places their bravery shone out.
Thousands of poppies fluttering down, and drifting like red snow and banking up against the white headstones
Memorable and horrific at the same time .
The Canadians were gassed at St.JulianPotisje , a short distance along the road.
Then on to the Church in Ypres where the poem written by McCrae ,a Canadian,
Was read from his own handwritten copy ,which was in a frame
and hung in the Memorial Church ,in.a Photograph frame!
What a lovely idea was The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier.
A day full of history.
Viktoria.
-
There was a very moving piece on Radio4 this morning at 9.45. It was mainly the report from the Times, of the journey of the Unknown Warrior on the morning of 11th from Victoria Station to the Cenotaph and the Abbey. A beautiful piece which had me in tears.
-
I did go out but would you believe it,the dustbin men were collecting and assembling bins on the corner for the actual container vehicle to come .
Not far from me.I was getting very angry.!
They have their job to do - I don't think you have any right to be angry.
-
Once again our town had a short video piece which included the Last Post from the Sunday Service and ‘When You Go Home ...’ both delivered by young people.
A very moving part today, was the playing of photographs and resumés of local men who had died. That was heartbreaking.
One had a familiar surname and looking at him he was so like a family we know - lots of males in that family. I later found a published tree and he was the great grandfather (and great great grandfather) of the young men we know. The likeness passed down. Again, quite emotional.
Our town council , I think, has really tried to make it a time of solemn remembrance for its people.
-
Mike , Bury Council have a web site, naturally .
It advised us to commemorate Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day ( today) at home.’ and observe the two minutes silence there .
It was a Nationwide gesture to stand on your doorstep to observe the two minutes silence .Well publicised.
So why were the bin men wheeling bins about , shouting above the noise the
machinery makes as it tipped the bins up ——at eleven O’ clock?
Actually for quite a time , the collection point is at the top of the road not far from me .
The bins are collected earlier, then the lorry comes ,the bins emptied and returned .It us a pretty quick operation ,two minutes would not have seriously delayed them .
I really think, following their own advice the council ought to have issued a directive about the observance of the two minutes silence ,to their employees.
I did not do anything about the anger I felt ,just retired inside .
I can feel how I like .
As far as I know Mike we do not as yet have any thought police or do you know different?
As well as Armistice Day it is a hundred years since The Unknown Warrior ,brought from a battlefield, was interred in Westminster Abbey .
Something pretty important in our country’s history.
What did you do at 11 O’Clock on November The Eleventh .?
Viktoria.
-
What did you do at 11 O’Clock on November The Eleventh .?
Viktoria.
I was doing something.
-
What did you do at 11 O’Clock on November The Eleventh .?
Viktoria.
Both days, stopped working on security improvements at home 5 minutes early, made a cup of Coffee, went and sat down at the front of my house, and reminisced about life.
I wondered about the 4 unidentified "Unknown soldiers" whose bodied were picked in 1920, and if anyone had thought of attempting to extract DNA from the remains, to try and ascertain who they actually were, as, like us, there must be families who still do not know what happened to related unidentified or missing servicemen. We have one, Frederick Bruce. Killed 14 Apr 1918, Belgium.
-
An article about the Scottish Womens Hospitals in Serbia during the Great War, the British government didn't want their services, or give them the vote! so they went elsewhere,
https://archiveandlibrary.rcsed.ac.uk/special-collections/scottish-womens-hospitals-for-foreign-service
Serbia play Scotland tonight in Belgrade.
Skoosh.
-
Wilfred Owen ,the war Poet, was killed just before the end of WW1
It took a few days for news to get to families in those far off days
The bells of Shrewsbury Abbey ,very close to Owen’s home on Monkmoor Road,were ringing to celebrate the end of the war, when the telegram
arrived ,notifying his family of his death.
Just days before the end —-
Sometime in the night of 31 October / 1 November.1918.
I have been in the house and his little attic bedroom ,we were standing at the roadside ,looking at it when the family who lived there started packing a big 4x4 for their holiday.
I apologised for looking at their home ,but was Invitrd in.
Said no at first ,it seemed such an intrusion ,but was urged to as they liked people to be able to see it
Right at the top of the house in the attic really .
The son of the family had just got I think a double first in English at Cambridge.
It was just as it had been in Owen’s time .Liittle iron bed .
His memorial,on the Abbey lawns ,a sort of section of a trench ,low.
We later on a holiday in France walked along the canal where he was killed
and visited his grave which with some others us in the village Churchyard at Ors.
How agonising it must have been for families whose men were killed right at the very end ,just a few hours less and they would have survived.
Joy that it was all over, then those last telegrams .
Viktoria.
Skoosh your post just pipped mine, yes,we don’t hear much about the war in the Balkans which given Germany’s flimsy excuse to start WW1,-assassination of The Grand Duke and his wife , was instrumental.
The Balkans States were very unstable ,did it in History at school.
Such long long feuds some from as far back as Alexander The Great !
Revenge being a key factor.
Wonder why the Nurses were not wanted,that seems insane!
I can’t bring the article up ,but will look into it ,most probably is in one or other of my “ War Books”, !
I have one specifically about Nurses .From memory though mostly re zTge Western front and Gallipoli .
Thanks.Viktoria.
Thsnks
i
started
-
Good idea Flattybasher but somehow I don't think it will be allowed, I assume there is only 1 soldiers remains in the casket
Louisa Maud
-
It will be known where the remains if the other soldiers were re buried though.
I think the fact that THE soldier in the tomb is unknown is what gives hope to all those whose men have no known grave ,they can hope he is theirs.
The location where he was disinterred was a secret , so no one could think he was not theirs,if it was known theirs had been killed in Belgium but the unknown soldier dis interred in France,can’t be my son etc.
To not know —— no place to visit ,even if families could have afforded to go.
That is very hard.
But I see what you mean about the others .
Viktoria.
Do you know where in Belgium Flattybasher,where killed and where buried..?
V
-
@Viktoria, apparently women were not considered competent enough! ;D
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42096350
Skoosh.
-
Strange as untrained young women could be VADs,some basic training
but they ended up at Field Hospitals .
To wit, Vera Britain ,who wrote Chronicle of Youth and Testament of Youth .
They did various jobs and often were the ones who stayed with mortally wounded soldiers not much more than boys, when they were dying.
There were two women who worked with Belgian soldiers ,in a cellar of a house in Pervysje ,not far from zBruges
The invasion of German troops was so rapid there was no time to organise field hospitals etc and Belgian Drs were forced to work for German soldiers.
One a Dr Sebrechts ,from Bruges , was such a one .He pioneered spinal anaesthesia .
His family fled to England .
His wife and family lived in the house we bought on our return from Belgium.
They had been supported by the local church.
Two English women Mairi Chisholm and an English woman married to a Belgian Baron ,Baroness Tserclaes worked together to help Belgian Soldiers .
A meal,and hot drink and first aid.
They worked in Pervisje ,in the cellar of a ruined house.
For a time they were resting in aConvent school in Ghent ,we British ex pats
did a concert each year for OXFAM , there was a theatre in the school which we used.
Guess what was in the entrance hall of the School - A plaque ———-——!commemorating the work of two British women ,who gave shelter and hope to Belgian soldiers ,during WW1 , and had rested at The Convent.
Baroness Tserclaes and Mairi Chisholm !
What a small world .
Wonder Skoosh if at the start of the war with no idea how long or how
dreadful it would be ,it was ignorance .( Plus misogyny !)
Florence Nightingale in The Crimea sort of pioneered “battlefeld “ nursing.
( Mind you there are disputable figures which suggest the soldiers actually had more chance out in the open.Sepsis)
Nurses were very looked down upon , having to assist men to whom they were not married with personal care! :-[ :-[ :-[
Viktoria.
S