As the few become fewer, we must always remember
AMID A pandemic, when we are dealing with a more immediate cause of loss, it would be very easy for us to allow remembrance of those who died in wars to slip from our collective consciousness. Indeed, many people have remarked on how poppies seem to be a lot less visible this year.
It is perhaps inevitable that the suffering of war seems a lot less raw than it used to do. The wartime generation is rapidly passing now, so fewer and fewer of us have elderly relatives who can recount their experiences of the Second World War. You have to be at least 94 to have served in that conflict.
Moreover, with our troops now home from Afghanistan, and with Islamic State defeated in Syria and Iraq, we may individually feel less connection with the Armed Forces. Reports of British service personnel dying in combat are, thankfully, not often in the news as they were a decade ago.
Yet for all this we should make sure that we continue to mark Remembrance Sunday as we have always done: as a solemn reminder of the horrors of war as well as an occasion to mark our gratitude towards those who have served – especially to those who lost their lives. Not only that, we should take care to continue our annual act of remembrance even when there is no one left to recount personal experiences of either of the world wars.
WE SHOULD do so, not just to honour those who died but because it is through the act of remembrance that we help ensure that we never again get dragged into all-consuming armed conflict.
Who hasn’t wondered, while dropping their head for the silence on Remembrance Sunday, what we would feel if we were having to contemplate playing a part in battle?
It is moments like those that you realise why war has become all but unthinkable among what used to be known as the “great powers”. As long as the horrors – and the causes – of the wars of the 20th century remain at the front of our minds, few would tolerate their governments flexing their muscles and using armed conflict to advance their national interests.
Yes, I know that international politics can get quite heated sometimes, such as over Britain’s post-Brexit relations with the EU. But no one for a moment is going to start rattling sabres in the way that was commonplace between otherwise civilised nations prior to 1939.
We should never take peace for granted, though. We should think of it, rather, as a condition which should persist so long as we make sure to remember what happened when an aggressive movement like the Nazis was allowed to rise to power in a European country.
There are numerous demands on the national curriculum, with every political activist wanting a thick slice of time devoted to the issues they care about most. But the First and SecondWorldWars must remain integral to a school education.
We have a lot to learn from the wartime generation, and not just about warfare itself. No less intriguing are the tales of civilian life – how people kept going while bombs were dropping around them and when the sight of a postman carrying a telegram must have struck fear into anyone who had family members on active service.
The resilience of those who lived through the Second World War is an example to all of us, and something we should think about whenever we are minded to complain about our lives.
It is easy to moan about lockdowns, queues at petrol stations, empty shelves in the shops and everything we have had to endure over the past 18 months, but really they do not even begin to compare with the privations that were part of everyday life in the 1940s.
NO ONE sets a finer example for endurance and resilience than the Queen who, in spite of her recent illness, is determined to attend the Cenotaph service on Sunday. Of all engagements, this is the one she has chosen to break her enforced rest.
The Queen is, of course, of the wartime generation – serving as a mechanic in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In May 1945 she joined London’s VE Day celebrations incognito, experiencing the wave of relief that the war was over in Europe – although it had three months to run in the Far East, and more British servicemen would die.
Now that age really has wearied the surviving wartime generation, we owe it to them to continue to acknowledge their contribution to defending the country, defeating Nazism and in doing so making the world a better place for all. We must always observe Remembrance Sunday, even when no one is left who remembers the war.
‘Lockdowns do not compare with the privations of daily 1940s life’