Remembrance Day
(Veterans' Day, Armistice Day)
.......Lest We Forget
For some reason Jamaicans don't pay much
attention to Remembrance Day. Every November we see a handful of retired
JDF soldiers going around "selling" ugly paper poppies, most of us
ignore them without a thought as to what it means. We're not fighting
any wars now and those who did are almost all gone. That's not quite
true, Jamaica might not be in any armed conflict at this point in
History but there are many, many Jamaicans fighting in the service of
other countries and some have even given their lives. We have young men
and women walking our streets who came home from Iraq; and more than a
few who fought in Grenada, just 20 years ago, the last conflict that
Jamaica took an active part in. Those of my generation still remember
the unjust Viet Nam "Police Action" and much of the World does not
support the current Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But let's not confuse the people who
fight and die in Wars with the governments who start them.
The Meaning of
Remembrance Day
The date of 11th November commemorates the 1918 ending of
World War I. On the 7th of November 1919, George V proclaimed that
every year at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh
month, two minutes of silence would be observed to remember those who
had fallen. After
World War II, the day was renamed from Armistice Day to
Remembrance
Day in Commonwealth countries. Many European countries still call the day
Armistice Day and in the United States it is Veterans' Day. The day
remembers all soldiers killed in all wars, not just the two World Wars.
There is one exception, in Australia and New Zealand ANZAC Day (25th
April) is their major memorial day to honour their forces who fought at
Gallipoli in WWI though Remembrance Day is also celebrated.
Images of World War I
My grandfather in Egypt
The Jamaica Contingent shipping out
Stamp commemorating the return
My Heroes of World War II
Leslie, the Commando, survived countless
dangerous missions in Europe but died in
an accident weeks after returning home.
Ronnie, left for dead on the beach at
Normandy; rescued and brought home.
His body recovered but for the rest of
his 90 years his mind sometimes returned
to the horror.
Ian, the
handsome and debonair "Fly-boy,"
survived great danger to come
home safely and is living happily
ever after!
Why the Poppy?
Two events coincided to make the poppy the symbol. A Canadian Army
doctor, Major John McCrae, wrote a poem about the devastation and death
he had seen in Belgium and a French lady, Mme Anna Guérin, conceived of
the idea of making silk poppies to be sold to raise money for the widows
and orphans left behind. In 1921 Commonwealth Countries and the United
States adopted the Poppy as the official symbol of commemoration. It is
meant to be worn on the left side, over the heart.
Memorial poem written by John McCrae at
the Second Battle of Ypres, probably
after the funeral of his student,
Lt. Helmer.
Major
John McCrae
Surgeon in the Royal Canadian Army
(later Lt Col McCrae)
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
(Response by
American, R. W. Lilliard)
Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead,
The fight that you so bravely led
We've taken up. And we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep,
With each a cross to mark his bed,
And poppies blowing overhead,
When once his own life-blood ran red
So let your rest be sweet and deep
In Flanders fields.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
The torch ye threw to us we caught
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And freedom's light shall never die!
We've learned the lesson that ye taught
in Flanders fields.
Memorials
It is an unfortunate state of affairs that most Jamaicans would, through
exposure in the media, be able to identify America's Viet Nam Memorial
but not even be aware of our own war memorial. The Jamaica War Memorial was erected on
Church Street in 1922 in memory of those who died in WWI. In 1953 the
entire monument, weighing several tons, was relocated to the then new
George VI Memorial Park, renamed National Heroes Park after
Independence, and there it still stands. Every year at 11:00am on the
11th of November wreaths are laid to honour our fallen. A War Memorial
is called a Cenotaph and every parish capital in Jamaica has a Cenotaph.
The Cenotaph
at National Heroes Park
Appeal The Jamaica Legion, founded in 1949, is our veterans' organisation.
This month, if you see a Legionnaire with a tin and poppies, please give
a donation to help support the Jamaica Legion at Curphey Place in
Swallowfield and our old soldiers at the Curphey Home in Manchester. If
you think about it, everyone of us has a relative, maybe distant, or a
friend of a friend, who is fighting for the United States, Great
Britain, Canada or some other country. And we never know what will
happen. Someday, God forbid, our husbands and wives or our precious
children, may have a war to fight.
A friend
of ours who is a British veteran is
releasing his CD
"The Fallen" on Remembrance Day
this year.
All proceeds to the British charity,
Support Our Soldiers.
Readers, particularly those in the
UK, are urged to support this
effort.
