POPPY APPEAL 2007....AND CHRISTMAS TOO

[mgmark]

I am reminded that this year's British Legion Poppy Appeal has been launched and, as I may be the only serving officer who is regularly on the forum, it is probably appropriate that I start this thread, which I'll add to further in due course.  Do please consider supporting the British Legion, who do such marvellous work in supporting past and present members of the Armed Forces who are affected by conflict and need help. Today, we have personnel serving, in Iraq, the Falklands, the Gulf, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan.  In the past, there have been many, many other places around the world.   

The Legion will be needed for as long as people continue to be affected by conflict. It doesn't advocate war, but it is there to support those who have been prepared to make a personal sacrifice through serving in the British Armed Forces.   

http://www.poppy.org/

So, either through their website, or at one of the myriad places and people that sell the poppies over the next two weeks, please give generously to the cause. Please don't bring politics into the thread, so that we can avoid tarnishing the personal sacrifices that have been made by so many, over many years, by people who do what they do, or did what they did, simply because they are in, or were in, the Armed Forces.  Thank you,

MG Mark

[fagey]

I wholly agree with MG.. and take time to remember..

I will be at our local cenotaph on the 11th, and for all those that haven't been to their local one before should try this year.. it has a special aura to it..

Andy

[Perdu]

Yes, a timely reminder Mark.

The British Legion do fantastic work and so do our forces. Please give them all the support you can.


Bill

[mgmark]

I did say I'd post further - many of us are familiar with the "They shall not grow old" line, but few are familiar with the full version, which is Byron's "For the Fallen", from which the "Ode of Remembrance" is taken.  So here it is, bearing in mind that it was written in 1914, hence the reference to England, otherwise it applies equally to every conflict before, at the time and since.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of 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 condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with 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.

But the whole thing is always muddy, bloody, vicious and unfair in so many different ways.  Everybody affected is somebody's son or daughter, father or mother, nephew, cousin, brother or sister.  Please help to remember and support them through the Poppy Appeal,

MG Mark   

[Jason]

I certainly will be attending my local Rememberance Service, as I do most years. Those who have fallen in the Service of our Country deserve to be honoured and remembered.

Mark has posted the full version of "They shall not grow old" For me, one poem stands out, and that "High Flight" written by Pilot Officer Gillespie McGee RCAF in 1941

High Flight
"..On September 3, 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem -- "To touch the face of God."

Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, 'High Flight'. ..."

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

"Wear your Poppy with Pride" - I will be

[Canada Phil]

Hi Mark, Thanks for starting this thread. Here in Canada no Remeberance day is complete without the reading of Lt Colonel John Mcrae's poem.

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

 The above poem appears on our $10 note so we may remember them all year. He was ofcourse Canadian.
 Phil

[Canada Phil]

I certainly will be attending my local Rememberance Service, as I do most years. Those who have fallen in the Service of our Country deserve to be honoured and remembered.

Mark has posted the full version of "They shall not grow old" For me, one poem stands out, and that "High Flight" written by Pilot Officer Gillespie McGee RCAF in 1941

High Flight
"..On September 3, 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem -- "To touch the face of God."

Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, 'High Flight'. ..."

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

"Wear your Poppy with Pride" - I will be

Hi Jason, One of my favorites too. Although Magee served with the RCAF he was actually American even though he was born in China. It has been suggested the poem was for his father, a minister, who was disapointed he had not followed into the clergy.
Phil
Wearing my poppy with pride too

[Leftie]

Having spent 3 1/2 years in a sail-training establishment in the '60's, I commemorate the fallen. Some were friends that passed into the after-life during the Falklands conflict.

I attend St. Andrew's church on an annual basis to remember my shipmates that gave thier lives for this country and therefore wear my poppy with pride.

Below is a verse written by Beatrice Fry in 1897 and it is placed on a memorial plaque commemorating T.S.Mercury, it's fallen and the remaining few that still remember.

Dedicated to minds that can
Soar, that will rise and not
Be discouraged by obstacles or
Difficulties, that will chance
And dare for what they love
And know to be right.
To co-operation, combination,
Dash, perseverance and
Unselfishness. This T. S. 'Mercury'
And its adjuncts are fearlessly dedicated,
For harmony, the
Good of mankind and to hearts
That can beat for others.
Its ideal is Good Friday's Hero.

 

[Steve Pyro]

I visited the Somme battlefields last month to pay my respects.  I was overwhelmed by the scale of the battlefields and the number of cemetries and memorials in a relatively small geographical area.
It brought home to me the vast number of servicemen cut down in their prime, serving their countries.

Vimy Ridge Canadian Memorial






Thiepval Memorial to the Missing




Guillemont Cemetery





complete album here - http://travel.webshots.com/album/561207113jTImlc

http://travel.webshots.com/slideshow/561207113jTImlc

[Canada Phil]

Hi Steve,
           Superb photo's. Thanks.
Phil

[mgmark]

Steve,

Lovely photos and, indeed, an impressive, overwhelming and humbling area to visit.  Went there a few years ago now, and the Thiepval memorial is particularly moving - over 76,000 names of these with no known grave.  And from the grand memorials and large cemeteries, there are also countless smaller cameos and vignettes of that conflict.  The unexploded shells still ploughed up every year and piled at the side of the road.  And the Heudicourt Cemetery near Cambrai which has the grave of Private David Ross of the South African Infantry, who died on 25 March 1918 of wounds sustained - aged 14 years and 3 months. 

Closer to home, and remembering World War Two, is the Air Forces memorial, which commemorates with each name inscribed around the memorial's courtyard, over 20,000 airmen and airwomen who have no known grave, from all around the world, who were lost on RAF operations launched from UK and European bases.  It is located high on a hill near Windsor, overlooking the Thames valley, quite fittingly at Runnymede, where Magna Carta was signed in 1215, which enshrined freedom in English law. 

They are all humbling things, and remind me of why freedom is such a precious thing.

MG Mark

[Canada Phil]

Another poem. This one written in 2007by an RCAT Veteran for his friend.
Tribute to a Tail Gunner

by John A. Neal

Oh!  I have slipped the surly bonds of fuselage,
And bounced the sky in plastic covered cage.
Earthward I've looked, while others saw the sky,
And sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things,
I could not dream about, with guns and sight,
And Messerscmidts and Folk-Wolfs on my right.
I've watched the tracer bullets race along,
And had the pilot fling his eager craft through
Footless halls of air,
And, that is why we still are there!

Up, up the long and dangerous flight we climb,
While I've stopped up the wind-swept turret,
Where seldom heat, nor even fleece lined coat has ever been,
And while, with eagle eye and solid vigilance, I've waited,
To protect my friends with whom I long have flown,
Put out my hand, and asked God to see us safely home

[Leftie]

Further to my earlier post, the following verse composed by Beatrice Fry in 1913 can be seen at the TS Mercury memorial in Hamble.

And so She passed into the Starlit Water of Memory
And there She will Remain until the Stars Pale in the Great Dawn
Which will turn her Spars to Gold.
She will lay a Course
For the Islands of the Blessed
To join Company with all good ships
In the Splendid Haven.

Beatrice Fry.  1913.

To get the history of Training Ship Mercury, follow this link:-

http://www.tsmercury.com/

Although never signing and taking the Queen's Shilling, I spent 3 1/2 yrs within the Naval environment and tradition from 15-18 and it made me the man that I am today.

'The Last Post', the most intense but saddest piece of music still brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

Jerry

[Bob U]

This poem was written by a British soldier serving abroad.

With Christmas not to far away I thought appropriate to post it as a tribute to those who will be
serving our country while we are at home with our families.


ITS CHRISTMAS DAY ALL IS SECURE

IT WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
HE LIVED ALL ALONE
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE
I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE
AND TO SEE JUST WHO IN THIS HOME DID LIVE

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE
NO TINSEL NO PRESENTS NOT EVEN A TREE
NO STOCKING BY THE MANTLE JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES OF FAR DISTANT LANDS
WITH MEDALS AND BADGES AWARDS OF ALL KINDS
A SOBER THOUGHT CAME THROUGH MY MIND

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT IT WAS DARK AND DREARY
I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY
THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING SILENT ALONE
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER
NOT HOW I PICTURED A LONE BRITISH SOLDIER
WAS THIS THE HERO OF WHOM I'D JUST READ
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO THE FLOOR FOR A BED

I REALISED THE FAMILIES THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT
SOON ROUND THE WORLD THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY

THEY ALL ENJOY FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE
I COULDN'T HELP WONDER HOW MANY ALONE
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME

THE VERY THOUGH BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND STARTED TO CRY
THE SOLDIER AWAKENED AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE
'SANTA DON'T CRY THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE
I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM I DON'T ASK FOR MORE
MY LIFE IS MY GOD, MY COUNTRY. MY CORPS'

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT I CONTINUED TO WEEP

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS SO SILENT AND STILL
AND WE BOTH SAT AND SHIVERED FROM THE COLD NIGHTS CHILL
I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE ON THAT COLD DARK NIGHT
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOUR SO WILLING TO FIGHT

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE
WHISPERED 'CARRY ON SANTA ITS CHRISTMAS DAY ALL IS SECURE'
ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT
'MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT'

[mgmark]

Bob,

Thanks for posting that poem - I'd seen it only a couple of days ago and, as a serving man, it touched me then just as it does now, sparking thoughts of the many UK airmen, soldiers and sailors who will be all over the world, away from home during the forthcoming festive season, whether they are known or unknown to me. 

Now for an unashamed appeal - a number will be in overseas garrisons or ships, or stuck down a bunker in front of a screen, doing what they do as part of a routine posting.  They will all doubtless, as they always do, come up with imaginative ways to celebrate Christmas.  Much more difficult to do so in the theatres of actual conflict, but they will do so too, as best they can, muted or constrained by operational activity and by the social norm of where they are serving.  What such self-help does not do though, is provide a direct link to home, which hopefully comes in the form of parcels or letters from relatives and some friends (which assumes that there is someone there to send them..). 

They were hugely welcome to me whenever I've been in the circumstances to receive them, and although we know that that he's home for Christmas (at least this year), we've just sent a surprise "survival" parcel to one of our youngest who is undertaking basic training at the moment, which has been hugely well-received.  But that's within one's immediate family.  One thing that makes a massive difference is knowing that other people care too, enough to tale a little time and care to pack up a few bits and bobs weighing less than 2kg in a shoe box, and sending it free of charge to someone at one to the operational BFPO addresses http://www.bfpo.mod.uk/index.html (and they've just announced that the "free" bit will continue indefinitely).  It really doesn't take much to fill a shoe box with simple stuff that is nice to get and open on Christmas Day when you're up to your neck in sand or mountains.  No alcohol, porn mags, chocolate (it melts), fresh food, aerosols or things that go bang - and it doesn't need to be luxury items - but favourite sweets, toiletries (even soft loo paper included is a treat!), playing cards, yo-yos, a paperback novel, non-porn mags, puzzle books and the like will always be well received a little bit of imagination and research will uncover plenty of other possibilities.  A few words in a card are nice to read, but you don't need to include either your name or address.   

The deadline for getting parcels there in time for Christmas is 7th December, so there is still time.  There are organisations that co-ordinate sending parcels, and individuals can do so too off their own bat.  The only criteria for the free service is that is goes to a named individual during the peak mail period; parcels can still be sent addressed just to a unit or theatre to give to a suitable chappie or chappess, but those are charged at the BFPO rate. 

So if you know someone who is out there, or know someone who knows someone, please think about sending something to them.  If you don't, then please think about using one of the co-ordinating organisations, or contacting your local army, RAF or Navy Unit or Service Association direct to find out if they could forward a parcel onto someone deployed from their unit.  We are there because that is what we do at the behest of another - and it's nice to know that people aside from family and friends care about that.

MG Mark