With dignity and respect, the tributes to those who fell for freedom are so moving
At a time when every day brings troubling news, when it feels as if things fall apart and the centre cannot hold, the Festival of Remembrance takes on a special significance.
It’s a reminder that one thing at least can be relied upon: the dedication and courage of our Armed Forces.
This year’s festival followed the time-honoured sequence of events, untouched by the turmoil on London’s streets just a mile or two away.
First came the standards of the Royal British Legion, carried proudly in procession down the steps into the arena, then the Pensioners of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, followed by a musical display by a band of one of the Armed Forces – this year it was the turn of the Royal Air Force Regiment.
Then came the moving ceremony of the Drum laying, followed by the muster of personnel from the three services, and finally the Service of Remembrance itself.
As always, this unchanging ritual was given a human shape by a focus on anniversaries and themes.
This year marks the centenary of the Festival itself, but equally important was the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
We saw on screen veterans from that time recalling their younger selves.
“I thought I was going on holiday,” said ex-King’s Regiment soldier Trevor John; instead, he faced trench warfare, where he and his comrades were outnumbered five to one.
The same irrepressible good spirits and generosity shone through the memories of Alford Gardner, a 97-year-old Jamaican soldier who served in the RAF in the Second World War before coming to the UK on HMT Empire Windrush, whose 75th anniversary also fell this year.
The need to serve something bigger than oneself – that was the message that kept coming back, from the bereaved parents of Corporal Matthew Cornish, who fell in Iraq, to the three disabled ex-servicemen who found a new purpose through taking part in the Invictus Games.
Their travails were given a moving artistic shape through the dancing of the disabled, neurodivergent Stopgap Dance Company.
Threaded through the stories, and sometimes accompanying them, were the performances from invited guests.
The highlights for me were the folk-like rendition of Fields of Gold from Katie Melua, the tender performance of Bring Him Home from Alfie Boe, and the boy treble Malakai Bayoh, who held us spellbound with a performance of Pie Jesu.
As for the military musicians, they were as stirringly precise as ever, whether it was the band of the Royal Marines showing off their punctilious drum stick-work, or the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment reminding us that It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).
The most surprising and moving moment of it all was the singing of a Korean folk song by a veteran – in Korean. It offered us a glimpse of that peaceful harmony of nations which you can only find in dreams – or, indeed, in music.
The need to serve something bigger than oneself was the message that kept coming back’