General Chat

ON APRIL 8TH. IN OTTAWA, ON. THERE IS TO BE A SPECIAL SERVICE TO COMMORATE WW1, VIMY RIDGE AND THE LIVES LOST DURING THAT WAR. IT WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE WAR MEMORIAL, AT 11:00.
I CERTAINLY HOPE TO BE THERE.

MY GRANDFATHER WAS A SCOT, AND HE DIED IN FRANCE IN THE VERY FIRST WEEK OF THE BATTLE OF MONS. I WAS FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO GO TO FRANCE FIVE YEARS AGO AND VISIT THE BATTLE FIELD AND STAND WITHIN 10 TO 300 YARDS OF WHERE MY GRANDFATHER LOST HIS LIFE. THERE IS SMALL MEMORIAL, WHERE I FOUND HIS NAME, I LEFT A SINGLE ROSE. WE ALSO VIISTED THE INTERNATIONAL CEMETERY CLOSE BY. I NEVER EXPECTED TO FEEL SO EMOTIONAL, BUT READING THE HEADSTONES SO MANY WERE SO YOUNG. EVEN ON THE RUSSIAN, AND GERMAN GRAVES. MY MOTHER USED TO SAY THAT IN THAT WAR
"WE LOST THE FLOWER OF THE COUNTRY", BECAUSE WE LOST A WHOLE GENERATION OF YOUNG BOYS. MORAG

I had a great uncle who died in Ypres Aug 16 1917, He is commemorated at Tyne Cot Memorial

"For The Fallen" by Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Robert

This is the verse that is read on Remembrance Day in Canada -- even though it was written for England's fallen. ;)

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

I find it moving and eloquent, but I know that the young war dead and their families would have preferred them to grow weary with age. Being relieved of that burden is small recompense for being denied those years.

May he rest in peace as all the other soldiers who fought and died in a war for their countries.