With the many events held in 2014 to commemorate the bravery of the soldiers of the two World Wars, my visits to the delightful sea front of Weymouth are made more thoughtful each time I pass the memorials erected on the esplanade.
The First War figures highly with many men of the town lost during that dreadful time.
There is a permanent bed of red memorial poppies that are renewed every year. Some inscriptions remember seamen who died in the massive sea battle at Jutland in 1916.
And others to the diverse nationalities of our Allies in those wars.
Their inscriptions remind me of the close association that the town also has with the D-Day preparations in 1944 and the sad events both before and after that operation was launched.
One memorial to a great loss of life in nearby Lyme Bay during training for D-Day during events that are perhaps less well know but equally poignant.
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 condemn.
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.
The “Ode of Remembrance” is taken from Laurence Binyon’s poem, “For the Fallen“, which was first published in The Times in September 1914.
Very touching blog. Thanks.
Together with the Finding Reiner series, this post helps remind us of the individuals and the effects on their communities.
We’ve been seeing large and small memorials in France this past week. We were stunned, viewing the memorial in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, to note that there are over 100 names on the WWI memorial, many with similar, even identical names, contrasted with only a half-dozen or so from WWII, and then other numbers from other wars. The large losses in France in the First World War must have been devastating to small towns, and I’m sure the same is true for Britain.
During WW1, before conscription was announced, young men were encouraged to join by local dignitaries and celebrities.
Hundreds of Regiments of Infantry were formed with names such as the Liverpool Pals and the Bolton Pals – all made up of men from the same town.
Many regiments were completely lost to combat in France.
Small towns had lost all their young men to war and were left with no one coming home.
Regiments after 1916 were drawn from several towns and cities.