Tuesday, 11 November 2008 01:00 | and posted in Features
As I reflect this morning on Remembrance Day I am struck by the thought that there is probably no city, town or village in Britain that does not contain a memorial to the men who died during the First World War. These memorials stand as a testimony as to how hardly a family went untouched by the tragedies and sacrifices of WW1.
Today is the 90th anniversary of Remembrance Day. Ninety years ago on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the guns of Europe fell silent. In the UK there are now only three known surviving veterans from WW1 alive from more than 5 million who were bearing arms in November 1918. Henry Allingham, 112, Harry Patch, 110 and William Stone 108, will all be at the Cenotaph in London on Tuesday Nov 11 for a service of remembrance. It could well be the last major anniversary of the First World War at which a living link with that generation will be present.
War has changed much since the trench warfare of World War 1. I could mention weaponry, vehicles, armour, tactics, technology, global communication, satellite navigation... but what I think has changed most is that for most of us our connection with war today is through a box in our living rooms.
I do not personally know anyone serving in Iraq or Afghanistan currently. I can easily imagine that this is the case for you too. The only person I've known by name through these wars would be Prince Harry. War continues to be waged and yet the majority now go untouched by its tragedies.
In the 20th Century alone, 43 million military personnel were killed in war, and 62 million civilians. While historian Will Durrant's assessment that "there have only been twenty-nine years in all of human history during which a war was not underway somewhere," is particularly heart-breaking.* War has almost become an acceptable "background noise."
As I joined in with the two minute silence at 11am I was particularly wary that for many it went unheeded. Cars and vans drove by outside, people chatted in my office, and emails even arrived in my inbox... Once upon a time I imagine that everything would have once stopped as a nation remembered the freedom that had been won for it.
With the living link to WW1 veterans down to three, the future of Remembrance Day is unsure and under much discussion. I invite you today to consider what your thoughts are on how we remember our war veterans and indeed war itself.
If you're an ignite member I invite your thoughts on whether we should continue to hold Remembrance Day in the comment section below.
DID YOU KNOW?
Scarlet corn poppies (popaver rhoeas) grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again ripped open as World War One raged through Europe's heart. Once the conflict was over the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the otherwise barren battlefields.
FOOTNOTE:
* From Chris Hedges, 2002, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Stats from page 10 and quote from page 35.
