It’s the season when every presenter on television and their guests are wearing a red poppy. I wonder if anyone ever refuses or says they would prefer to wear a white poppy – or both.
1914-1918
“In August 1915, at the age of 17, Les and I went to Hinckley barracks. As the recruiting sergeant ushered us into the Captain’s office, he reminded us to, ‘Stick to it that you are 19.’
So to the suburbs of Lens and into the shell-torn houses, where on that lovely July morning in 1917 we cooked our breakfast in the cellar and then went up above to enjoy the sunshine and a mug of tea…suddenly shells dropped close and that was the end for some of us….’That doesn’t look too good’, said Corporal Hemmings as I received First Aid…and it wasn’t.”
1939-1945
“I was born 6 months after my father left to fight in North Africa. He fought at El Alamein and then up through Italy and all the way across Europe to Berlin. When he arrived home in 1946 I didn’t know who this stranger was. There was always a quiet distance between us. He seldom spoke of the war, except to those who had been through what he had.”
10 October 2022
“What was in Vladimir Putin’s mind on October 10, the day he decided to repeat February 24 in Ukraine and carry out a rocket attack on Kyiv?
Among the dead from the Russian shelling was a young oncologist from the main children’s hospital. She had just taken her daughter to kindergarten and was on her way to work. Her car was incinerated by a rocket explosion.”
“I am a soldier of Christ; I cannot fight.” St. Martin of Tours
Chris Dawson