Remembrance

It’s now just four months since we heard of the deaths of the two last British survivors of the Great War. Henry Allingham (1896-2009) RN, RNAS, RAF, and Harry Patch (1898-2009) Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, were both young men who answered the call to arms and fought in the 1914 – 1918 war. Neither would speak about their experiences until quite late in their lives when they became a living record of the dreadful conditions endured in that war.

In my family we remember my mother’s Uncle, who was killed in August 1918, A/Cpl James Brandon, Royal Artillery. He was one of those companies of tunnellers who were used to undermine the enemy’s trenches prior to explosives being deployed. My mum was born two months after his death and so never knew him but his name was and is kept alive within the family.

In the past few months we have grown accustomed to hearing about more of our young men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq who have also lost their lives. We have all read the reports of soldiers being killed as they went to help their colleagues and friends. Whether our involvement in these two areas is justified or not does not matter, these brave youngsters have continued to prove the adage “greater love hath no man than he lays down his life for his friends.”

Throughout the whole of the twentieth century there were just a couple of years when no British Soldiers were killed in action – you only have to visit the National Memorial to see the numbers. So today, as we remember those men and women who have died in the service of this country, let us pray that the twenty first century is not one in which the statistic continues and that all nations can learn to live in Peace.

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”
Let us all pray that we can all live in the peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

God bless, John