Bridgewater’s very attractive Veterans Memorial Park
had a complete make-over in 2005 and was dedicated on August 14th of
that year. As part of the redesign, the grounds of the park were upgraded,
making it more accessible for wheelchair and walker use. At that same time, the
Cenotaph and West Nova Scotia Regiment/Merchant Navy Monument were refurbished together
with the unveiling of new Honour Roll Monuments all made of striking black granite.
For me, November 11th has always been and
will remain as the most important date on the calendar. In my 58 years, I may
well have attended 50 plus remembrance services. Such services in the United
Kingdom were always held on Remembrance Sunday, this being the Sunday closest
to November 11th ~ Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of WWI hostilities
in 1918.
I have vivid memories of some early Remembrance
Sundays’ as young Cub Scout in my home town in Scotland, marching proudly from the
village Old Parish Church which dates from 1774 to the Memorial Park. At that
time within those lines of marchers would be many veterans from WWI, WWII,
Korea and perhaps even the Boer War.
As time continues to move on, the living memory of
those who bore witness too and fought in the great conflicts of the 20th
century are fading into the past, my hope is that future generations will
always acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of those who served their country,
and recognize it is their responsibility to work for the peace that others fought
so hard to achieve.
The acknowledgement of that “courage and
sacrifice” should not be limited to November 11th, it should be with
us every day. For me, that recognition has a very personal and significant meaning
on a number of levels, in particular for my relatives who fought in both WWI
and WWII and now lie in foreign fields.
Below a poem written by Normandy Veteran Ken Hay MBE, about those who lie in foreign fields ~
But never do we question, why we journey across
the waves.
Tis why you’ll find us stood in tears, head bowed
among the graves.
And as we look at those sad sad stones, we ask the
question why?
Why me that stands above in life, whilst they in
death do lie.
Sadly, they lie in foreign fields, beneath a
foreign soil.
Their stones record their names and dates they
parted from life’s toil.
They gave their all, that you and I, would live a
life at peace.
So here we lie still for all time under this
foreign sod, some with name and number above, some known but to God.
When you go home, tell them of us and say ~
For your
tomorrow, we gave our today.
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