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Thursday 29 May 2014

Military Memories 30: Lest We Forget

Over the past month  I have featured the members of my immediate family who served in two world wars.  I finish this Military Memories Challenge by highlighting the way we remember  those who served and those who died.  LEST WE FORGET. 


I persuaded my father  to write down his memories and Dad's own words form the basis of this family history narrative (left) ,  supplemented by letters written to my mother  in 1944 and photographs from the family collection.  It was a very enjoyable and at times moving project to read Dad's own words and compile this tribute.

I was also proud to contribute Dad's story  to the BBC "People's War"  - a major project where the public were invited to post wartime memories  online.  An archive of 47,000 stories and 15,000 images was the result.   





From national memorials to small village crosses we remember those who were killed in war, including my two great uncles John and George Danson. 
  
The Cenotaph in London began as a temporary structure erected for a peace parade following the end of the First World War  but following an outpouring of national sentiment it was replaced in 1920 by a permanent structure and designated the United Kingdom's primary national war memorial.   Designed by Edwin Lutyens and built of Portland Stone,  the memorial was unveiled by King  George V  on 11 November 1920, the second anniversary of the end of the war. The unveiling ceremony for the Cenotaph was part of a larger procession bringing the Unknown Solider to be laid to rest in his tomb in Westminster Abbey.

The term "Cenotaph" relates to a monument  to honour those who died,  whose bodies are buried elsewhere or have no known grave. 




 Minto War Memorial, near Hawick in the Scottish Borders

Taynuilt in Argyll, Scotland

Clitheroe,  Lancashire, England 

Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge in the Scottish Highlands.
 It overlooks the training areas of the Commando Training Depot
established in 1942 at Achnacarry Castle.

  Isle of Iona, looking across to Mull



War Memorial at Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire 
with the names of my two great uncles John and George Danson



Copyright © 2013 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved
 

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