We commemorate Remembrance Day on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year.
These special excerpts from our Frith Memories Community call to mind personal experiences of wartime and Remembrance Days of the past. We share them to mark Remembrance Day and those men and women that lost their lives in the two world wars and subsequent conflicts.
"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."- Laurence Binyon, For The Fallen
"I was a member of the choir here. In the 1930's and throughout the war years the church would be packed for the morning service every Sunday. During the war years the army attended Sunday morning services and the military band played during the singing of the hymns. The great thing about being in the choir was the fact that we were paid every quarter. As I remember it was 3 shillings and sixpence. On Remembrance Day the service was conducted at the War Memorial. Most of the villagers attended and the Catholic Priest was there with the Vicar.
(A memory by M Spavins.)"
"It was in the mid 50s that I went with my Grandmother to the Remembrance Day services held at the War Memorial. There were a group of WW1 veterans in a line and as a young child it was a surprise to me that they were crying. When I grew up and learnt what had been the horror of that war I understood. My Grandmother had several cousins who died and whose names were on there. She pointed them out to me, but I do not remember them. In my mind's eye, I can see the scene. Remembrance Day remains an emotional time for me and I'm sure it goes back to those Sundays in November."
"I was born in 1939, the year war started, and remember being lifted out of bed in the middle of the night and the barrage balloons looked like big elephants in the sky. I also remember the table shelter in the lounge which I was put in with my brother, and my Mickey Mouse gas mask, reddish with a tongue and green on the bottom, it smelt funny. I remember going out and picking up silver paper that had dropped from planes, and also the sweet tins, black, with malted milk tablets, which were given to us by Uncle Bill in the Army - these were given to the soldiers. And I remember cod liver oil, and malt, and ration books - the clothing one was pink.
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"This is the Paardeburg Memorial (the Green Howards). Due to the amalgamation of the East and West Yorkshire Regt. our name is now what the regiment has always called itself. The Green Howards Regt Association carry out the service of remembrance on the Saturday before the national day in the area of the Paardeburg Memorial and lay their wreath there.
(A memory by C Allen.)"
"As I read and reread the memories that are posted on this site, Mitcham and my childhood there become more and more vivid. I can almost smell the grass on the cricket green, just after it was cut. When I was young, Mitcham was a place that people from the surrounding areas would come to. Now it's a place you have pass through going somewhere else. I sat and thought for a while, what was it they came for? Poppy Day, at the War Memorial next to the Mitcham Fire Station. All the bands were there, the Sea Scouts, the Boys Brigade, the Boy Scouts and of course the band I played in, the St John's Ambulance. The Last Post was played and the Mayor placed a large wreath at the foot of the cross. It was somewhat of a sad day, remembering the fallen, in both world wars, and yet I suppose a magnificent specacle for the onlookers.
(An excerpt from a memory contributed by J Bonser.)"