Burma Star Association - B.C. Chapter
Taken from THE TIMES, MONDAY NOVEMBER 15 2004
We remember
From
veterans at the Cenotaph to the Black Watch in Perth,
Britain lays wreaths to honour her dead
By Alan Hamilton
REMEMBRANCE Sunday is not just about old soldiers and world wars. It is about a seemingly endless procession of messy conflicts large and small, and about young servicemen who continue to give their lives in them.
Since the end of the Second World War 59 years ago there has been only one year- 1968 --- when no British serviceman was killed on active service. Since 1945 some 12,000 British service lives have been lost. The toll in Iraq is 73, and rising.
Yesterday's veterans' parade past the Cenotaph, each unit casting its wreath into the middle of Whitehall, was a sea of red, demonstrating the huge variety of comradeship from the obvious like Normandy and Arnhem veterans, Chindits or Bomber Command to the survivors and families of smaller military units -- or more obscure reasons for bonding, such as the Yangtse Incident 1949 Association or the British Nuclear Test Victims Association.
As veterans of the Second World War become fewer, the numbers applying to take part in London's Remembrance Sunday parade remain remarkably steady at around 9,000 each year. There are always new faces to fill the gaps.
British officers of the Queen's Gurkha Signals, an active unit recently on duty in Iraq, recently raised £15,000 to bring a party of 12 former Gurkhas to the parade from their home in Nepal. Their most senior member is Harkabir Grung, aged 83 and virtually armour-plated with medals, who joined up in 1940 and served in Malaya and Burma.
Another is Ranbahadur Pun, aged 76, who fought in Borneo in 1964 and whose decoration includes the Military Cross. "I am very proud to be here," the former lieutenant said.
Major Ade Clewlow, who organised the Gurkhas' visit, said: "It was a feat in itself to get them together from all over Nepal, but there was no shortage of volunteers."
Facing a foreign foe is not the only qualification for joining the Remembrance parade; the Royal British Legion admits other groups with different reasons for bonding.
Near the back of the column were 50 members of the Shot At Dawn Pardons Campaign the descendants of First World War deserters who have fought to clear the names of those terrified youths who paid the ultimate penalty for running away.
There are newer causes too, like the 25-strong contingent of Deepcut and Beyond, families and friends of the soldiers who died in the notorious barracks.
Other services were held across, the country yesterday, now that the second Sunday in November has become fixed as the nation's day for remembrance. One of the largest outside London was held in Bristol, given added poignancy by the presence of Royal Marines reservists returned from Iraq after volunteering to serve there.
Julian Cocks, 23, from Clifton, Bristol, who worked as a barman before being sent to train Iraqi forces in the south of the country, has been home for only two weeks. “Today brings home to people the price of peace; soldiers make a big sacrifice every day:” he said.
The price of peace is not appreciated by all. Thieves broke into the parish church at Longstanton, Cambridgeshire, at the weekend and smashed a stained-glass window dedicated to RAF aircrew who flew from nearby Oakington airfield during the Second World War. The window had been installed by the veterans themselves 12 years ago, and was a memorial to lost comrades.