Remembrance Sunday

We don’t have a cenotaph in Winwick and as you’ll know our church is currently out of action, so our Remembrance service was held in the school hall.  It’s a good big space for this kind of service, but it was pretty much standing room only and the congregation were not only regular church-goers but also new faces who wanted to pay their respects at the service.

The Brownie pack made poppies this year; you can see small daughter’s poppy on the left.  It seemed like most of the Brownie pack turned up to the service, too, proudly wearing their poppies and with yet more Brownie-made poppies adorning banners which will eventually become part of the church decorations when it re-opens.

I find the part of the service where the names of those men who left the village to fight in the two World Wars and never came home very moving.  Even though I wasn’t brought up in Winwick so it’s not really “my” village, I’ve been here for quite a long time now and still feel a connection to them.  After all, in the simplest sense they were all somebody’s son, brother or husband and that’s a connection that we all can recognise.

As time goes on and the remaining war veterans grow less in number, it becomes more important for us to remember what their actions meant to us.  Current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may seem much more remote, but the bravery of people who go to these places is no less because they have chosen to join the Army rather than having been expected to because every other man in the country was doing so.

I am proud that my girls were at the service today and that they wore their poppies and understand that soldiers from a long time ago died so that they can enjoy the lives they have today.  And even after the last old soldier has gone, we will still be at the Remembrance services because they should never be forgotten.