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Poppies and rememberance

TheCatWoman

Do you wear a poppy and go to rememberance services?

I feel really ambivalent about them and it. I wish there was more focus on those who came/come back brokens. I say this as the Grandaughter of one of the "lions led by donkey's", my Grandda suffered from what we now know as PTSD, he sacrificed his sanity and the legacy still runs through our family to this day. Why do we not remember the sacrifice people like him made?

  • Personally having attended the Menin Gate ceremony in Ypres in Belgium I like what they do. Everyone who takes part in the march to the Menin Gate is given a handful of paper poppies which are then collected as you pass under the Menin Gate. At the end of the ceremony all the paper poppies are released from the top of the Menin Gate and flutter down as a see of red. This symbolises the loss of so so many young lives that once marched up the road through the Menin Gate to the trenches and were lost. It is quite a moving tribute. There are over 54,000 names of British and Commonwealth soldiers who have no known grave.

    That is why we remember on the 11th of November. The day the guns fell silent on the western front and stopped the slaughter of a generation.

    My great grandfather was gassed at Ypres and was invalided out of the army in 1915.

    The act of remembrance was supposed to ensure that the first world war was the war to stop all wars. That didn't work out very well once the the donkeys and politicians got involved that allowed the rise of Hitler and the rest we say is history.

  • The poppies have always been made by ex-servicemen (who have mental or physical impairments) to provide them with work and the money raised from selling the poppies is also used by the Royal British Legion to supports other ex-servicemen who have mental or physical impairments.

  • TheCatWoman said:
    Why do we not remember the sacrifice people like him made?

    I think when this idea of rememberance day came about back in 1919 there was no real appreciation for the survivors - they were a resource to be used and only the ones who paid the "ultimate price" with their lives needed to be remembered.

    I think it probably played into the glorification of war to encourage future recruits with the idea of sacrefice and being mourned for their acts of heroism.

    Mental health is a relatively new consideration and the prospect of adding another celebration to highlight the lasting damage that combat causes on peoples lives is not a message the governemnt want to encourage.

    Once we start opening up that can of worms then there will no doubt follow a "where there's a blame there's a claim" culture of people suing the army for damages.

    Those are the forces I see at play here. The common soldiers interests are rarely considered.

  • in reply to profdanger

    We have Remembrance Day. It is in remembrance of the day that that WWI ended and the guns on the Western Front fell silent. On the day and in the weeks before poppies (made of paper or as small enamel badges) are worn. Poppies grow on disturbed soil, so were seen in profusion along the shell cratered soil between the trench lines. In 1918 my grandfather was gassed in France on the front line, he survived but his lungs were badly affected. One of his comrades won a VC in the same action.

    The day and the poppy were transposed to commemorate all later wars where UK servicemen, and civilians serving their country, died.

  • Today is Veterans’ Day here in America. Do you have something similar to that in the UK?