Remembrance

Remembrance Sunday brings back memories of huge parades with every uniform organisation in the community out in strength. I joined Birtley Boys Brigade when I was 10 so that I could march with them. It was a mistake. I hated it. I paid one shilling for the badge but quit the week before I was due to receive it. So I never marched in the big parade.


This year in our Act of Remembrance at All Saints, Bob, (Squadron Leader Robert Vollum DFC) recited the familiar words of Binion, "They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old..." Bob is 88 and stands as straight as a ramrod. The remarkable thing is that he has grown old. So many of his comrades never did.



Bob, a man of firm Christian faith, flew many missions in world war two. He remembers one occasion when his plane was hit by flack from a lurking flack ship. The plane limped home. When they landed the crew counted 32 separate holes in the fuselage. "It was a dicey do," said Bob, (RAF understatement!) We were privileged to have Bob, wearing his Distinguished Flying Cross along with half a dozen other medals, to lead our Act of Remembrance at All Saints.

And then there is Afghanistan. Today a heart broken Mum complained about the Prime Ministers hastily scrawled letter of condolence. Her name was mispelt and the mispelling of her sons name clumsily corrected. Ed Miliband pointed out that the PMs handwriting is appalling, partly due to his one blind eye but that he gives time to writing these letters.

Maybe the real issue for this bereft Mum is not a lousy letter but that all she has is a lousy letter instead of a son.