Armistice Day

Perhaps it is because I am pagan that I feel there is such a resonance that this day is when it is. I know it is just a complete coincidence that it happened so near to Samhain, but I don't think that takes anything away from it. We remember our dead.

I find this day very emotional. There are only three men left alive from the First World War. Soon they will be no more. Will we still remember them? It isn't long until the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1. One Hundred Years. In my son's eyes it might as well be a thousand. How do we pass onto our children that these things need to be remembered? Not glorified, not rationalised, just remembered. All those sons and daughters, husbands and wives, sisters and brothers that never come home...

The World Wars are such a major part of our cultural history. Yet as people grow older, we lose the generation that actually lived through the experience, so everything we tell our children is secondhand. How do we still keep it relevant to them?



One of the saddest sights of all is the Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire. It lists all the names of those who have died since WW2. The list is long. It also has a blank wall...for the names of those yet to die...

Since WW2, the UK's armed forces have been involved in all these conflicts...


Palestine 1945-48,
Peshawar 1989-90,
Malaya 1948-60,
Namibia 1989-90,
Yangtze 1949,
Gulf 1990-91,
Korea 1950-53,
Kuwait 1991
Canal Zone 1951-54 ,
Irag/Kuwait 1991-2003,
Kenya 1952-1956,
Western Sahara 1991 to present day,
Cyprus 1955-1959,
Northern Iraq/Southern Turkey 1991,
Suez 1956,
Cambodia 1991-93,
Arabian Peninsula 1957-60,
Former Yugoslavia 1992-2002,
Congo 1964-69,
Sarajevo 1993-98,
Brunei 1962-64,
Georgia 1993 to present day,
Borneo 1962-66,
Rwanda 1993-98,
Cyprus 1964 to present day,
Angola 1997,
Radfan 1964,
Croatia 1996-98,
South Arabia 1964-67,
Kosovo 1998-2002,
Malay Peninsula 1964-65,
Sierra Leone 1999-2002,
Northern Ireland 1969-2007,
Falklands 1982,
Congo 1999 to present day
Dhofar 1969-78,
Kosovo 1999-2007,
Rhodesia 1979-80,
East Timor 1999,
South Atlantic 1982,
Ethiopia & Eritrea 2000 to present day,
Lebanon 1983-84,
Macedonia 2001-02,
Gulf of Suez 1984,
Afghanistan 2001 to present day,
Gulf 1988-89,
Iraq 2003 to present day...

I certainly don't always agree with the politics of war. I think War is a horrific thing. However my liberal views aside, men and women are still being killed, and deserved to be acknowledged and remembered. I may not want my children to join the Armed Forces, I can't understand why anyone would want to, and I pray to the Gods that my children are never enlisted. But I still think that those that do choose to fight don't deserve what they are given nowadays.