Remembrance

[Iain Laird <Iain.Laird@btinternet.com>]

Earlier today I was at the opening of the  Field of Remembrance at
Westminster Abbey.  I attended as Secretary of the London Section of
The Royal Scots Association, which has associations with the Clan. 
It was a simple and moving ceremony with the Queen Mother's place taken
by the Duke of Kent.  Practically every Regiment and Corps was
represented, and the Commonwealth Nations as well.  There were many
veterans  whose faces and expressions told of the sacrifice
remembered.  Our life would not be as we know it but for many young
lives lost in the defence of freedom.  The many individual crosses
of remembrance each tell a story of courage and loss.

I will be posting photographs at The Royal Scots Association London
Section website
http://members.tripod.co.uk/RoyalsLS/
in the Remembrance section  (there are photographs there from last year).  We will be back on the 11th in greater numbers for our Section's annual cross planting ceremony, where our piper will play "The Flowers of the Forest".

I would recommend a visit to The Royal British Legion (the ex Service Charity) site, http://www.britishlegion.org.uk and its associated site http://www.poppy.org.uk/ where you can download a Poppy Screensaver, and accompany the appeal for 2 minutes World Silence for the fallen.

It is an interesting reflection that in only one year since 1945 were there no British servicemen killed in action and they are currently serving in 28 conflicts around the World.  And it is impossible to conceive of victory in 1945 without the Commonwealth and US servicemen, most of whom lie in war cemeteries around the World, many where they fell, in row upon row of white stones whose beauty and symmetry simply astound us today with their numbers.

Lest we forget.

Yours aye

Iain Laird

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