Honouring all those who have died or have been injured in all conflicts, anywhere, at any time. Rest gently and peacefully.
4th August 2014
National History Museum
St Fagans, Glamorgan, S.Wales
These two young people are stood in front of the war memorial at the St Fagans Museum in S.Wales. They just so happen to be two of our grandchildren and because we were visiting the museum of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One, we all wanted to spend a few minutes remembering ALL who have died in ALL conflicts worldwide, civilians and military personnel.
On the trip to the museum we had listened on the car radio to various memorial speeches and sadly too many glorified the war and referred to the 'brave soldiers' who had 'sacrificed their lives'. No mention was made of the fact that the young men [including the great, great grandparents of the children above] were sold a dream of fighting for their country when the truth was that Great Britain were fighting due to a historic set of alliances between countries which tumbled like a pack of cards after months/years of unrest culminating in the assination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo [There are far better explanations of the events leading to the outbreak of World War One extant, do search google; Jeremy Paxman's book Great Britain's Great War is pretty good. But do remember the old saying'History is written by the survivors' and is not always written from an objective point of view] And those soldiers who died did not willingly sacrifice their lives and perhaps we should more properly say that the governments of the countries involved sacrificed their soldiers lives......
We must never forget the dreadful human results of war. So as a family we agreed that the best way to commemorate those who died would be by putting an end to all conflicts. If no-one was prepared to bear arms then the leaders would have to solve their differences another way. A big hope perhaps, but one to which we can all aspire and work toward in our own small ways.
A few links for those interested in joining us in working for peace:
