Honour the Memory, Honour the Covenant.

[Doug]

It's that time again to remember those that served, fought and died. This is not just a rememberance but a commitment to our services and those who continue to serve. The rest is up to us.

Honour the Covenant

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Doug

It's that time again to remember those that served, fought and died. This is not just a rememberance but a commitment to our services and those who continue to serve. The rest is up to us.

Honour the Covenant

A timely reminder.

Although I would like our skin flint government do more for ex-service personnel disabled on active service and more for the families of a serviceperson who paid the ultimate price and not leave it to various charities.

If it wasn’t for our service men and women the snouts in Parliament wouldn’t have a gravy train to ride on. The fats cats would be thin moggies and the ruling classes and aristocracy would be a history lesson.

[flashy]

i was talking to my mate's son about this earlier, he's 11 and didnt even know why we wear poppys, i think a lot more should be done in schools to teach the next generation about rememberance day and the men who fought for our country

[Eric]

Originally Posted by flashytart

i was talking to my mate's son about this earlier, he's 11 and didnt even know why we wear poppys, i think a lot more should be done in schools to teach the next generation about rememberance day and the men who fought for our country

With all (apart from 1 or 2) the WW1 vets dead, and the WW11 men in their 80s and 90s it is becoming history. I do agree that much more could be done in schools to make sure it doesn't become ancient history. But how can one bring it home to an eleven-year-old, that there was a time in the not so distant past when, if it wasn't for the actions and sacrifices of their grandfathers and great grantfathers that the world would be a far worse place than it is now? Even those of us who can remember our grandfathers, veterans of that mass slaughter on the Western Front, are getting on in years. If the young are not prepared to remember, or taught why one should remember, the result could be that they have to do all over again what has already done at such horrendous cost.

Accrington does have the advantage in that it was home to the Pals, whose courage on the 1st of July 1916 has become legendary. There can be no better place to start educating the young than an appreciation of what those men did almost a century ago.

[harwood red]

Originally Posted by flashytart

i was talking to my mate's son about this earlier, he's 11 and didnt even know why we wear poppys, i think a lot more should be done in schools to teach the next generation about rememberance day and the men who fought for our country

Ok someone take flashy's temperature!!! She said something that makes sense ya know I'm kidding ya girl

[flashy]

its true though Lesley, they dont do anything like that in schools anymore, and it really angers me

[harwood red]

You're right there, they do in secondary but I think in simple terms english history should be taught in primary school. Then again, it's also something that should be talked about at home aswell

[flashy]

Reece knows all about it, but only through me and his grandad telling him about it

[Eric]

Originally Posted by flashytart

Reece knows all about it, but only through me and his grandad telling him about it

That's probably a much better source of info than some sanitized politically correct class in schools. (I noticed that I mentioned the MEN who went and fought, rather than "people." I don't think that this is sexist, only fact. It is different now. One of Canada's casualties in Afghanistan was Capt. Nicola Goddard, an artillery observer in the Kandahar region.) But I would not trust schools alone to educate the young, when the best resource is the history that is in the family. There is a lot to be said for oral history passed on from generation to generation. Local First Nations have oral traditions going back thousands of years.

One could argue that there is no excuse for the ignorance when there is so much info on the net, great sites, like the one for the Pals.

[flashy]

when i was at primary school many moons ago we learnt all about the Accrington Pals....schools should be shot down for not teaching children local history, yes they do learn about the romans, vikings and all that, but to me that isnt local history

[jambutty]

Maybe the schools should invest in that excellent TV programme “The World At War”.

I got the full series in a boxed set for about £60 I think it was and worth every single penny.

One episode a week as part of history lesson with a discussion afterwards would be very interesting, especially if any of the kids had a grandfather who lived through the war.

There may not have been many women in the armed forces in those days but the various resistance movements would not have been anywhere near as successful as they were if it wasn’t for the women. And of course there were women in the merchant marine, the almost forgotten 4th arm of the armed forces, yet they were civilians.

Then there were the women pilots who flew the planes from the factory airfields to the operational airfields.

And who kept the home fires burning during the blitz and coped with the rationing of everything including bread whilst holding down a job making munitions and planes and guns and tanks?

[Eric]

Originally Posted by jambutty

Maybe the schools should invest in that excellent TV programme “The World At War”.

I got the full series in a boxed set for about £60 I think it was and worth every single penny.

One episode a week as part of history lesson with a discussion afterwards would be very interesting, especially if any of the kids had a grandfather who lived through the war.

There may not have been many women in the armed forces in those days but the various resistance movements would not have been anywhere near as successful as they were if it wasn’t for the women. And of course there were women in the merchant marine, the almost forgotten 4th arm of the armed forces, yet they were civilians.

Then there were the women pilots who flew the planes from the factory airfields to the operational airfields.

And who kept the home fires burning during the blitz and coped with the rationing of everything including bread whilst holding down a job making munitions and planes and guns and tanks?

Indeed the women were important on the home front. I have a picture of my gran with her tin hat on, riding a motorcycle. I do believe she was an air raid warden ... now I wish I had found out more from her while she was still alive. And I do know that she worked in a munitions factory in the first war, but where it was I do not know.

[Ber999T]

Doug thanks for starting this thread and I have posted the link onto the SOS website so it may well get sent to a lot more forums too now.

With the nearing of the 100 years from the start of WW1 maybe the schools could be asked to think about doing something in teaching about this period of history

[shillelagh]

My dad was in a reserved occupation in Ireland - he was a farmer but he came over here during the 2nd world war and worked in the factories in Liverpool and left his brothers to look after the farm. My uncle was killed out in Burma. I found his name on the commonwealth war graves site

:: CWGC ::

[Less]

Originally Posted by Doug

It's that time again to remember those that served, fought and died. This is not just a rememberance but a commitment to our services and those who continue to serve. The rest is up to us.

Honour the Covenant

Well said Doug, bought my poppy yesterday and am now wearing it with pride in honour of all the service people, not just of the two world wars but for the ones that have given their lives since 1945 until the present day.

I just hope no more of them will have to come home in a wooden box.