Remembrance

In the run up to Remembrance day 2016 I thought a short post reminding people about just why we should remember the sacrifice of many millions of people during the 20th Century and remind people of the incredibly shortsighted politicians that caused the deaths in the first place.
It is 100 years since many of our armed forces became cannon fodder for the vanity of politicians who after it was all over (The war to end all wars) then sowed the seeds of a far worse conflict between 1939 and 1946.

After the war was over in 1918 many monuments were erected to remember the sacrifice and in Ramsgate the ceremony on the 11/11/2016 will visit two of them.

The 1st is Destiny "The memorial had been presented by to Ramsgate by Dame Janet Stancomb-Wills at a ceremony on 17th December 1920. The ceremony was attended by the Mayor Mr R W Philpott, the Rev. E L A Hertslet, Gilbert Bayes, the statue's sculptor, several councillors and other leading townspeople. The memorial was unveiled by the Mayoress. Originally inscribed on the plinth was the epigraph Destiny and a low-relief frieze representing all branches of the services – land, sea and air – who contributed to the war effort, as the memorial was dedicated to all who had contributed, not solely to those who had lost their lives. The depictions also acknowledged the contribution of animals to the war effort. These representations can no longer be made out because of the weathering of the stone."

 Wreath laying will be in Ramsgate Cemetery

The last is St George's Church where wreaths have been laid in the past.

For the Fallen

Poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), published in The Times newspaper on 21^st September 1914.

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 condemn.
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.