For your tomorrow, they gave their today
Crowds mark 100th anniversary of Armistice signing to end WW1
They had marched to war full of pride and patriotism, waved off by their loved ones. But, all too soon, the brave young Tommies were trudging up the line to death and staggering over the top into oblivion.
The “lucky” ones hobbled home to their families, but many never spoke about their bloody journey into hell.
Yesterday, a century after the monstrous guns fell silent, the dead of the First World War marched again – in the hearts and minds of 10,000 descendants.
Pensioners, parents, teenagers and children with soldiers’ medals on their chests, and fading photographs in their pockets, lined up to pay tribute to all who fought for King and Country.
And as the touching People’s Procession snaked past the poppy-covered Cenotaph on Whitehall, Central London, the nation looked on and said, “Thank you”. It was an extraordinary and emotionally charged occasion. “It feels
as if the ghosts of the fallen are walking with us today,” said Lucia Chilcott, 67, from Kent. She was there to honour her great-uncle Richard Nunneley, her Italian grandfather and five other relatives.
“I can almost hear their boots on the gravel and them whistling, ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary.’” She went on: “My great-uncle, who was in the Royal Field Artillery, came home but never spoke about the war.
“Then, just before he died in 1973, he called me in and told me about the horrors he saw at the Somme, and he wept.
“I now feel a duty to keep his memory alive, so that future generations know what those men endured.”
Men like Oliver Davies, a 21-yearold driver in the Royal Engineers, who was killed by a stray bullet in Palestine in 1917 as he took his captain’s horse to water.
His great-niece Jackie Sheridan, 52, from
Leicester, had joined the procession. She was carrying the letter written by that captain to Oliver’s grieving mother. “He said they had buried Oliver and made a little cross for his grave,” Jackie explained.
“He sent her a picture of it and promised to return there later and check up on her boy. “Being here today means so much, because telling the stories of our brave young men brings them to life in people’s minds.
“And future generations will know what youngsters like them sacrificed for their freedom.”
On a day of huge emotion, those taking part in the People’s Procession gathered in the Mall to watch the traditional Service of Remembrance on huge screens. The Queen led the nation in two minutes’ silence – more poignant than ever 100 years after the guns of the Great War were stilled. Royalty, foreign diplomats and politicians paid their respects to the dead
of all wars, but especially those who had served in the trenches in France and Belgium.
The Queen, at her 66th Cenotaph service, watched from a balcony in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, flanked by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, watched from the neighbouring balcony, with Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence also looking on.
Prince Charles laid a wreath on behalf of his mother while an equerry laid one on behalf of his father Prince Philip, who did not attend.
Then, for the first time ever, FrankWalter Steinmeier, the President of Germany, laid a wreath on behalf of the German people.
It was a highly symbolic gesture which, a Government spokesman said, emphasised the friendship that exists between our countries today.
Princes William and Harry, their uncles Princes Andrew and Edward and aunt Princess Anne, plus the Duke of Kent and Prince Michael of Kent, all laid tributes to Britain’s veterans, too. Prime Minister Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn followed them, along with Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, also joined them.
The two minutes’ silence was marked by the nostalgic chimes of Big Ben.
The 13.7-ton bell has been out of action since August 2017 while the Elizabeth Tower is renovated, but the Armistice Centenary warranted its return. The end of the silence was marked by cannon fire and Last Post, sounded by the buglers of the Royal Marines.
Then, following the short religious service, thousands of veterans from all of the armed forces marched along Whitehall in the annual Royal British Legion parade, including the Chelsea Pensioners.
Back in the Mall the People’s Procession was falling in, too, stretching back two kilometres towards Buckingham Palace. Folk from all corners of the country had entered a ballot for tickets to the event dubbed A Nation’s Thank You. As they waited silently for the signal to march off, golden autumn leaves fell from the trees all around.
Thousands and thousands lay at the feet – a poignant reminder of those golden boys who laid down their lives in the muddy, bloody hell of the Western Front.
And, looking back at the 10,000 faces of their descendants, the scale of the horror hit home.
For this huge mass of people was still just half the number of the men who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Lucia, remembering her great-uncle Richard, reached into her handbag and pulled out his photograph.
She had also brought a selection of the 300 love letters he had exchanged from the front with his fiancee, Gladys.
“They make me weep,” she said. “They are so full of love, a burning love that endured all that horror and, I think, helped my uncle survive.
“And love still survives, doesn’t it? It’s what’s brought us all here today.”