Remembrance Day

I watched the various remembrance day commemorations on the various tv channels today and yesterday and was particularly taken with the portrait of Wilfred Owen by  Jeremy Paxman on the BBC.  It was a beautiful and moving portrait of the emergence of a poet and powerful voice in the First World War.  Agonisingly he died on the 4 November 1918, 7 days before the signing of the Armistice on the 11 November 1918.  I had heard a couple of comments that the Remembrance Service is a political campaign – it is not.  It is the simple remembrance of people who have died in the service of their country.  One young man said to me that ‘ In the future it will die out’  I hate to say it but it won’t.  There are still young men and women for whatever reasons losing their lives for the sake of the freedom of other men and women all over the world.  The First World War was the most ridiculous and pointless exercise in political power-play that ever existed but that does not negate the sacrifice that countless young men gave.  Perhaps as an ex-WRAF officer I have a closer link with people who have lost their lives; 5 of my friends are no longer with us as a result of operational duty and so I feel a need to watch the annual events.

On a more flippant note – Strictly Come Dancing had a WWII theme and astonishingly, Brendan was a Flying Officer and Gethin a Wing Commander – do you think the BBC understand the ranking structure of the armed forces?