100 years ago today

Ted. Quick quiz. What happened on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, one hundred years ago today (November 11)? If you are an American who knows the answer, give yourself a pat on the back as most people in the US haven’t a clue. Europeans know that was when the guns fell silent across the continent ending the first World War, during which over 16,000,000 people had died. One positive outcome was the rebirth of the nation of Poland which commemorates today as National Independence Day. 

About ten years ago, Judy and I were visiting our good friends, Don and Catherine who live near Lille, France. One day we took a walk in the countryside. Just outside the village of Sebourg, we came across a tidy little British cemetery with only 63 graves.

British Cemetery, Sebourg, France

British forces had attacked the German lines in this area on Nov 4, 1918 in what became known as the 2^nd Battle of the Sambre. The cemetery we found contains the remains of one group of soldiers who perished that day, just one week before the armistice. All lives lost in war are tragic but these seemed especially senseless. During my research, I came across a photo of one of those boys; John Nowell, a domestic groom from Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.

  

For the past 100 years, people in the France, the UK and other countries have chosen to remember the armistice with special services including two minutes of silence. This morning, we attended Holy Trinity Anglican Church here in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Scriptural readings were replaced with letters and poems written by WWI soldiers and the names of parish members lost in both world wars were read aloud.

Roll of Honor, Holy Trinity Church, Las Palmas de Canarias, Spain

Included in the hymns was God Save our gracious Queen. I liked the second verse:

Not on our land alone,

But be God’s mercies known

On every shore.

Lord, make our nations see

That all humanity

Should form one family

The wide world o’er.

And to any service veterans who may be reading this I will add two final words – Thank you!