spoons
Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 4991 Location: St John's Town of Dalry
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Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:44 pm Post subject: A view on Remembrance |
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Following is the text of a submission I made recently to our local newspaper
A View on Remembrance
I have always found it difficult to comprehend the scale of human misery in the first and second World Wars. I find that I can better pay my respects on Remembrance Day if I think of just one or two men. This is, after all, what the people who attended the early services of Remembrance would have done.
In those early years following WW1 and WW2, families would have come together at the annual Remembrance Sunday service to remember a father, son, husband or brother who had been killed. For some, they would also remember their fallen comrades in arms. It might be two, three or even four brothers who had died.
Whenever I visit a war memorial, I choose a name and find out some detail about the man (or woman) and I have them in my thoughts. I am not a religious person but I think (or imagine) who the person was as an individual. I think about the pain, suffering and loss to the family and the community; I think about the achievements not made from a life not lived; I think about the children, grand-children and great-grand-children not born and what they might have achieved in their lives.
Whilst I have been writing this, I have chosen to hold in mind Thomas Colvin of 42, Academy Place in Castle Douglas. He is listed on four memorials in the town: Castle Douglas Civic Memorial, the Post Office Roll of Honour, the Carpet Bowling Club Roll of Honour and St Andrews Parish Church memorial which is now in Castle Douglas Parish Church. Thomas was just 19 when he died of wounds leaving grieving parents James and Mary. From the above we know he was a church-going postman who played carpet bowls in his spare time. To me he is no longer just a name on the memorial.
Whether you attend a service on Remembrance Sunday or not, the next time you pass a war memorial, please stop, read a name, and pause for thought. |
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