Sunday 11 November 2012

Remembrance Day 11/11/12


The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect. The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition. Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all. 

That was scene reported in Manchester on the very first Armistace Day in 1919. As a serving Soldier I am moved that this can similarly still happen these days. 

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, 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 condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

3 comments:

  1. A couple of years back I got my family up early and went to the early remenbrance day tribute.

    A very moving experience. That, and coupled with my memories of touring the cemetries and battlefields of North France from WWI, brings a tear to my eye...

    We will never forgot the sacrifices made, on both sides, in those great events... and also pay our respects and appreciation to those who currently serve...

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