Let's Remember

It's fast approaching 11am on 11/11/13 so I thought I'd start a thread to allow us to share our personal memories of family and friends who've served in the armed forces. Just a short snapshot, not a life-story, and no political commentary please. Here's mine:

My grandpa Maurice joined up in 1916 because he thought he'd "miss the war". He was 17 years old and served as a sniper in Siberia because he was a crack shot having grown up on a farm. He grew up in a village in Yorkshire that still had a maypole and the furthest he'd ever been was Leeds. He lived to be 99.

My Dad was called up in the first draft as he was 21 in 1939. He was kept on in Tripoli after the war ended to clean up along with anyone in the 8th Army who had medical or public health training to deal with cholera and dysentery. He was demobbed in 1947. Too many anecdotes to mention but they sailed to North Africa around the tip of South Africa! They all went ashore at Johannesburg* where the locals picked up all the troops at the docks and took them home for a slap up dinner and a bath. (*I'm starting to doubt my own memory so it could have been Durban or Cape Town). He suffered years of ill-health and died aged 71.

My Dad's father Ernest was in a reserved occupation as a miner during WW2. He got a lot of abuse even though he was too old for call up, and kept the steel works for the war effort going. He was a miner from 14 to 70 and then was hit by a motorbike and died aged 72.

My Mum's favourite Uncle Jack went awol to say goodbye to his mum before his last mission as a gunner in the RAF and had had a good run of luck but knew the odds were stacking against him. He was lost in his next mission.

I'm proud of them all.

I didn't actually lose anyone - both grandfathers survived WWI and were too old for WW2, but my Dad was one of the many thousands who joined up under-age - he's now 89 and ailing but I'm very proud of him and every British Legion remembrance service and Cenotaph service I shed tears for those lost in these two major conflicts and the more recent ones.

My Grandfather was already a regular in the Army when war broke out in 1914. He was a sgt in the Horse artillery and he trained the new recruits. He was then sent to France and was killed in 1917 and was awarded the DCM. He`s buried in France in a Military cemetary. My Dad was just 3 years old at the time.
My Dad later joined the merchant Navy and one of his older brothers joined the Army and another one joined the Air Force long before the next war started. All 3 were involved in WW2 and one of his brothers was a POW of the Japanese and worked on the Burma railway and died just a few months after arrivng back in the UK. The starvation, malaria, a fractured skull caused by being hit in the head by a Jap rifle butt and general ill treatment was too much to recover from but at least he managed to live long enough to get back home.
Dad`s other brother was air dropped into France to help the resistance form the Maquix. He was later awarded the Croix de Guerre from President de Gaulle and the Military Cross from King George. He worked undercover all through the War and continued to serve in the Air Force until he retired.
My Dad was a Merchant seaman and spent the war ferrying supplies and ammunition and had several near misses from U boats and once they were hit but managed to limp into port. Many merchant seamen died when their ships were sunk.
My own son joined the Army at 16 straight from school and has now served 22 years and will retire in a couple of years time. He`s served in every modern day conflict and has recently returned from a 3rd trip to Afghanistan but says his worst ever job was being casualty liason officer here in the UK and having to go tell people a member of their family has been killed or injured. He says he`d rather face an enemy than do that and see the devastation such news brings. He`s spent his lifetime serving his Country and has seen many things which will stay with him for the rest of his life. I am so proud of him.

Prayer for Remembrance Day

For those who were killed in battle,
For those who gave up their lives to save others
For those who fought because they were forced to,
For those who died standing up for a just cause
For those who said war was wrong,
For those who tried to make the peace
For those who prayed when others had no time to pray
For those creatures who needlessly die
For those trees that needlessly are slaughtered
For all of mankind

let us quietly pray:

May your God hold them in peace
May Love flow over the Earth and cleanse us all
This day and for always.

Marianne Griffin

I have the benefit of a memoirs my Grandpa wrote after much badgering from grandchildren and great-grandchildren which is so valuable for my children who don't remember him. In his final years, when he drifted into dementia, his memories were of his childhood and of the railway built every winter across a frozen lake in Russia an,d to the relief of the family, the frightening and painful memories of that time went missing.

Whatever the contribution or loss, no one comes through any conflict unaffected.