11-11-11 Rememberance Day

Today at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year it is 93 years since the end of the First World War and 97 years since its beginning.

Did the War to End All War’s do so? No. But we continue to honour those who died in the service of their countries from that time to, sadly, the present day.

The poem below contains the famous words of remembrance, and although it concerns itself with England (sometimes used erroneously instead of the UK), whichever country you come from, you can make a substitution.

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

LAURENCE BINYON 1914

Porthill Scouts Killed in World War 1 and World War 2

We will remember them