Remembrance Day

[Beast]

November is poppy month, the time of the year when we wear a red poppy in memory of those who sacrificed their lives for us during wars.

Your help is needed too. Please wear a poppy.
Poppy Appeal 2005 - http://www.poppy.org.uk

[Jenny ED]

Consider it done...

[Tab]

Last year I sold £993.00 of Poppies just by spending an hour and half a day for 5 days in our local town, so why not do some else and sell a few.

[Doc]

Good effort Tab. Thats good going.

I have just used the online donation link that J posted above, real easy to use and you can "giftaid" your donation, so the treasury throw in a few quid aswell (depending on your contribution) I think its 28p for every pound.

[Sticky Blue]

We have the jenny's walking round to all the offices selling them
Lubbly jubbly
RBL festival of Remembrance is on TV, watch and listen... the youngsters might learn something.

A worthy and just cause

[harry hackedoff]

Well done Tab that’s brills mate
We have the Poppy down here and the whole issue of who can sell them and where they can sell them is determined by an RSL version of The Sopranos We get a top spot in the middle of Perth with four pitches on a busy crossroads. Best thing is, we also get four Serving Aussie Perce to help us mug the punters, triffic
This thing about having Serving Members helping with the collection is an excellent idea, don’t you think? Majority of monies go to varicose Services Charities and a small percentage is retained by those doing the collecting for their own Association’s use.
When we visited Combat Stress I saw how the Poppies are made. While the guys are sat round having the crack, they knock out a few. It all adds up over the year.

Initially, Remembrance Day was to commemorate "the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month", when the Armistice was signed to end the Great War. Later, it became an act of Remembrance for the Fallen from all conflicts.

It is a personal thing for me because me Dad used to take me to see the Parade in Liverpool and the earliest I can remember is on my fourth birthday, fifty years ago. My D.O.B. is 11/11/50

The Prayer of Remembrance which begins "They shall grow not old" is a verse from a much longer poem to the Fallen which I have somewhere. I’ll dig it out and post it tomorrow.

[Sticky Blue]

For me, I'd not fancy standing ona corner selling poppies... my in tray would be toppers!
I do think it would be a good idea to have a serving guy there for a couple of reasons:
1. To look after the old boys and girls if they have any trouble
2. Uniform in the public eye raises the profile of the mobn
3. good for recruiting

[harry hackedoff]

Item 1 would be good in UKers mate, I agree.
Not here though, for reasons I`ve posted elsewhere about how the Services are seen by society. Remember three years ago I posted about a serving WO II visiting Jack`s kindy to give them a head`s up ref Anzac Day?
Let`s read that again, shall we?
A Serving Sarn`t Major in the Australian Army visited a group of four and five year old children and gave them a talk about what Anzac Day means to Australia. Respect for Serving or Former Members isn`t a problem down here mate, whether they be from Oz or U.K.

[Tab]

I must say that I have great deal of fun selling poppies and hardly any one gets past me that does not have one on. Last year I saw a woman with a horrible looking poppy so I called across and gave her a new one for free as the other looked a disgrace. She took the poppy and gave me handful of money saying she had the poppy the I replaced for a number of years and had been meaning to get a new one but could never find a poppy seller. I must say around here they seem to be fairly generous as many of the contributions are of the folding stuff.

[harry hackedoff]

For The Fallen
A Poem By Laurence Binyon


With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

[flo]

This year we will be going to Sage war cemetary out here in oldenburg. i have been asked to lay the wreath for the navy which i am proud and honoured to do. Whilst looking for a link i discovered a family tree for a family called Baber and they have relatives buried there so ive emailed them and asked if they would like flowers laying while i am there. It seems the descent thing to do.
I dont know about anyone else but at services like that, i always get a lump in my throat and never leave without a tear falling.

[Doc]

The Last Post always makes my eyes water a tad.

Chuffed your representing the RN Flo, can think of no-one better.

Best of luck with it.

[harry hackedoff]

I defy anyone to walk through the Cemetries in Normandy and Flanders without tears.
Flo, there`s a Pom who advertises a flower-laying service on Aussie Graves in Europe down here. The geezer lives in N France and for a nominal fee he places a wreath and follows it up with phots on e-mail and a few days later in hard copy. Given that the whole ethos of "Mateship" (which is a fundamental in Aussie culture) has it`s roots in the Great War, it is a very popular service.

Ref you ditching the flowers, will you be wearing rig or civvies? Do us a few phots Fi Down here Remembrance Day is very important, they still halt the traffic through Perth at 11 00 hrs and buglers play the Last Post. How long has it been since that was a common thing in UKers?
It is secondary to Anzac Day, however. I often wonder why it is, that in a predominantly English country where most people are of English descent and one third of it`s citizens were actually born in England, that they are so Patriotic It`s something you have to witness. And I did mean England and English as opposed to UK and British. English is the biggest contingent, followed by Scottish, Irish and Welsh. Why aren`t we this Patriotic about GB when we are in GB?
`Kin beyond this Member

PS Fi, WREN`s Association rig is what I refer to and not that kit Jed makes you wear Saturday nights

[flo]

Do you mean will i be wearing webbing????

Unfortunately dont have any of my uniform left, sold the last to a dutch matelot ££££££££ Will be wearing sombre black and wrens association scarf (god ill look like my mum) and wrens pin.

[harry hackedoff]

Don`t go for the White Hat mate.
It makes yer bum look big

We`s got our own Service of Remembrance on the sixth Nov. I haven`t been too busy obviously Couldn`t get either Army or Andrew band and therefore had to go civs (at a cost.) Plus side is that I did a deal on the seats which almost pays for the band. Even if they`s not a marching band. Bugger
Mrs Aitch reminds me it`s Jack`s skool fete that day and do I intend turning up as he is my son as well and would like to see his Father at some point in the proceedings if I could manage it?
Should I throw a Kevin next time she trys that ploy Hmmmm

A certain Member picked Jack up for us on Friday, just as the organiser for said fete was press ganging all and sundry.
Needless to say he kindly "volunteered" my wife for everything from providing the contents of the cake stall to nibbles for the mums and dads, plus car parking attendant, organiser of team games and provider of all the sports prizes. Isn`t she the good egg then

Let`s hope she sees the funny side when she finds out