Remembrance Day 2018

At 11 o'clock on 11 November 1918 the Armistice officially ending the hostilities of World War One was enacted.

When recently in England and Wales we saw a number of war memorials erected after World War One commemorating those from the local area who had died during the 1914-1918 war. After the Second World War additional plaques were added remembering those who died in the 1939-1945 war.  In some towns there were also memorial gardens. As well, memorials to those who died in war can often be found in churches and other buildings.

Display of knitted and crocheted poppies at St John the Baptist Church, Cirencester

The following posts provide information about some of the memorials that we saw on this visit to the UK:
Tring, Maldon, Kings Lynn, Pershore, Cirencester, Horsham, Crawley, Sutton and Tunbridge Wells in England  and Abergavenny in Wales.

Some towns had changing displays during the past four years remembering specific battles that took place during the Great War. Crawley created a Heroes Walk in the Memorial Gardens while St John the Baptist Church at Cirencester devoted a corner of the building for changing displays relating to the First World War.

The population of the communities where the above memorials are located would have been much smaller than they are today. For the ten memorials in this group of posts the names of more than 3000 men and several women are recorded as losing their lives during the First World War. Huge casualty lists in small communities. The numbers of the injured were much larger. The memorials serve as a reminder of the loss of life a century ago as well as in subsequent wars and conflicts.

The loss of Australian lives plus people injured was also massive. Australia's population one hundred years ago was approximately five million people. Approximately 62,000 Australians died during the First World War. Another 156,000 were listed as injured or taken prisoner. Nineteen thousand of the Australians killed in action were from Victoria. (Australian casualties)

Remembrance Day services will be held throughout Australia and England and most other countries on 11 November.

Lest We Forget