Kitchen Garden Forum

We shall indeed, we shall indeed!

Remembering all who gave their lives for our Country.

"LET THOSE WHO COME AFTER SEE TO IT THAT THEIR NAMES ARE NOT FORGOTTEN"

John

I always think of one of my grandfather's when I see poppies he was gased in the great war but I never could understand what was great about it he did survive but was a dithering wreck for the rest of his life ,I don't mean that as an insult it just how he was he shook and coughed all the time

Late 50's / early 60's morning assembly, the one hymn guaranteed to get me singing the best I could was what is
known as 'The Navy Hymn' 'Eternal Father Strong to Save'. Also known as 'For Those in Peril on the Sea'

The reason was that I would always think of my fathers brother, my would have been Uncle.
A teenager serving in WW11 on HMS Verdun who was lost overboard late one February night in 1944

I was born four years later and christened with his name as my middle name and although he was hardly ever mentioned in the family I have always felt a connection.
Because he was lost somewhere in the north sea there was no physical resting place for him that my father or his other brothers or sisters could visit.

It was not until they had all passed on that just a few years back I found his name is commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Alongside 18,500 other naval personal lost at sea.

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Attendance at our village War Memorial ceremony tomorrow is always a “must” in our calendar. As a wartime child I’m very conscious that the last of the generation who had to fight in WW2 or had to endure its hardships are now passing away. We owe it to them all not to forget their sacrifices.