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Post by Les on Nov 12, 2006 14:52:44 GMT
I've just got back from a trip to the local cemetery (as one tends to do on a day like today) and having gone through a few photos, this one struck me. I didn't think about it at the time, but on reflection, for me it is quite a sombre/moving photo. It's nothing special - not a David Bailey (a top British photographer) moment or anything, but the general composition says it all! Hope you think so too. Les.
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Post by roberthenry on Nov 13, 2006 22:01:31 GMT
Les, your photograph is a beautiful but poignant reminder about what rememberance day is all about and the reason we have it. Here is a little poem which I am sure you have heard before but is very appropiate at this time of year.
Nature created a flower With petals of brilliant red Who'd have thought such a beautiful flower Would be used to remember the dead?
For when all the guns have stopped firing And theres only the mud and the rain God sends down his little red flowers Tocover the lads who remain
So remember every November When we hold our rememberance day Of the lads who lie neath the poppies And the price that they had to pay.
A question about your photograph, from what I can see of it, it appears to have the same Regimental crest on the first three headstones. It is very unusual to see a line of Commonwealth headstones in a British cemetery is there a story behind it, and why have the poppy crosses been arranged at the end of the line? I am just curious. Any commonwealth Graves over here are usually scattered throughout the cemeterys, although on the north coast of Northern Ireland there are groups of Commonwealth Headstones but they are generally of sailors who have been washed ashore from sunken shipping.
Regards R Henry
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Post by Les on Nov 13, 2006 22:18:34 GMT
I've heard the poem before, but it's been a while. I usually think of myself as a "hard man" - taking everything thrown at me and not really showing emotion, but since I got involved in WW1 research, simple things like hearing the Last Post or reading a poem like this one, brings a lump to my throat..... needless to say, I rarely show it.
These particular headstones are at Arnos Vale Cemetery, here in Bristol. They are a handful of over 500 CWGC/private burials. The ones in the pic above relate to WW2 and include army, navy, a couple of New Zealanders and a Polish soldier. The poppies are a mystery, but there as many poppies as there are headstones in this section and they were laid out in the shape of a cross. The graves in the cemetery are scattered all over, except for about 300 from WW1 that are in a large common plot in front of the Wall of Remembrance.
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Post by roberthenry on Nov 14, 2006 9:51:19 GMT
Thank you Les, I wouldnt worry to much about the old British stiff upper lip thing, If you take a closer look around you at any rememberance service you will see eyes starting to water and lips being bitten to try and suppress it, and the lump just wont go down. Here at our local remembrance day service at the Cenotaph a wreath was laid by a widow whose husband had been killed in Iraq three months ago, need I say more. A walk around any Commonwealth graveyard on the western front will affect all but the most heartless, and I have been known to shed tears at the graves of relatives in France, people who were cut down long before I was born, people whom I never knew. Such is life.
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