I gave deep thought to what today’s lengthy writings should reflect and decided that it would only be right to dedicate its voice to Remembrance Sunday and also to Armistice Day which are memorial days honoured by the wearing of a poppy and a 2 minute silence.
Now over 100 years ago, it was on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour that the Armistice (Latin for to stand (still) arms) agreement was signed in 1918 to bring about peace and an end to the First World War (WW1) and where now on its annual anniversary we remember the fallen and those that defend our freedom and way of life.
My grandparent’s were children of the Second World War (WW2) and between them all, one witnessed an horrific plane crash which went up in flames close to the local school, another an unexploded bomb and one through the sheer distress at being evacuated planned and executed an escape route in order to find their way back home because they couldn’t bear to be parted from their family.
Sadly, all of my grandparents are no longer with us but I always like to think they look down on us fondly and every feather, robin and magpie that I salute (it’s a family thing) signifies to me that they are near and lovingly watching over us.
My grandad (Robert, Bob for short) wanted to work for the RAF but unable to become the pilot he dreamed of being (due to the tightening of entry level grade for maths and service years you’d have to commit to — which was 12 at the time in order to be approved for training) he travelled to parts of the world with my nana (Pam, whom he proudly writes was earning more than him at the end of the 50’s and as the family expanded they were accompanied by 3 beautiful children) working for the RAF, the Air Ministry, the Ministry of Defence & GCHQ at differing points where he would be stationed within the UK, Germany, Hong Kong and Ireland and where he worked in positions such as; communications, radar operations, corporal shift leader to British, Dutch and Belgian conscripts, cypher operations supervisor (which is where due to sensitivities he couldn’t divulge details) and in the 1970’s he was posted to the executive class of the MoD (Ministry of Defence) Air Force Board secretariat based in Whitehall, appointed assistant private secretary to the Under Secretary of State for the RAF (managing ministerial business with MPs/Lords etc), promoted to Defence Operational Research Analysis Establishment (DOAE) as head of management and security services and then worked for the MoD as a senior executive officer and prior to retiring he was working at Aldermaston for AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment) and even after retirement, he still consulted.
He never spilled the beans as he had signed the Official Secrets Act but I have read his memoir notes which took my mum and I to The National Archives to delve further ( many records have been declassified as time has moved on) and I do know that at one of his postings ( when the Vietnamese War and Chinese Cultural Revolution was in progress) they were told if they were discovered to destroy all equipment so for it not to fall into the wrong hands and also that the cover story for Hong Kong (to demystify why there were so many satellite dishes atop of the mountains ) was to state their flimsy cover story which was that they were meteorological telecommunications staff.
One of my favourite and partially humorous stories of his from the dinner table was when in 1972 he was part of an RAF statue commission process as board secretary to commemorate the wartime service of MRAF Lord Portal who had been a distinguished Chief of Air Staff throughout WW2 and he worked with Oscar Newman (whom also did the Churchill statue in Parliament Square) and the board and where he was asked what he thought of another of Oscar’s commissioned pieces of work (rumoured to be that of our late Queen) and also where the real-life maquette of Lord Portal lost it’s head on route to the pomp and ceremony approval reveal which was then held in place by some emergency chewing gum and whilst it was spinning around upon the turntable in front of a wide audience of VIPs the head gently sagged down into its chest as the make do adhesive begun to detach itself. (It might sound like the penned fiction of a screenwriter but I promise you this is all held within his written memoir.)
To us, as a family, he’ll always be our real life James Bond ( I never asked him how he felt about martini’s being shaken and not stirred) even if there will always be many gaps in our knowledge of what he actually did at certain points within his career history — he’ll always be a firm hero of a man whom I will always be in awe of and his legacy forever lives on in our hearts and minds but also in his well documented memoir. (Picture of him in uniform below).
Take pause and remember your loved ones, our fallen heroes and those that continue to offer us safety, peace and the ability to continue to live life as we do today.
Why Do We Wear Poppies?
The poppy is an enduring symbol of hope and remembrance of a flower that blossomed, with it’s vivid red colour, despite the trail of chaotic destruction and desolate landscape of Western Europe during the First World War which inspired the 1915, ‘In Flanders Fields’ poem by Lieutenant Colonel John Macrae and drew the inspired attention of an American academic Monia Michael who set about a persuasion campaign to adopt the poppy as an official remembrance symbol which was mirrored by others in Canada, the UK and Australia.
It was then in 1921 with the help and meeting between a french lady called Anna Guérin (wanting to sell remembrance poppies in the UK) and Earl Haig (The Royal British Legion Founder) where it was decided that the poppy flower would become an official symbolic gesture.
The poppy is now worn with pride any which way you like and is often seen displayed on bags, lapels, coats, jumpers and any outfit of choice to mark our stance of solidarity and support to it’s cause, memory and history.
Today the Poppy Appeal distributes 40 million poppies though 40,000 volunteers. You can find out more about the appeal and it’s history by looking directly at The Royal British Legion website here.
This week’s Friday bi-weekly lengthy newsletter thoughts version is topical of Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday with commemorations taking place and as such its format is reduced in its usual form to allow readers to reflect upon their own stories, to honour memories and to enable the immortal legacies of those that have fought, fallen and continue to protect us, those that we have loved and been parted from and those we have lost and those that shall forever be remembered.
Should you with to share this special memorial edition please feel free and able to do so and I’ll be back next week for my bi-weekly Tuesday Tell All Tales.