Memories of an ex-Launton boy

This month the ex-Launton Boy has concerns about the future, and whether we have learned any lessons from the past. He looks round the world and sees troubles ahead - with Russia, in the Middle East, and in the USA - with Putin, Netanyahu, and Trump. He remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall and the hope that Gorbachev brought of a new start. He is cheered by the Launton Poppy Cascades, and remembers as a boy collecting water from the Village Pump to take to his family house in Green View. He hopes that 2025 will be just another year.

So many anniversaries and so many memories, but what lessons have been learned?

Yet another year has gone by and yet another anniversary of Armistice Day when we remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.They died to rid the world of tyranny and yet, when we stop to look around, sadly we see that in certain quarters and certain nations, tyranny still prevails and all the ugliness that goes along with it.

One might have thought that after the horror of the holocaust during the Nazi years of WWII, the Israeli government might have been more measured in its response to Hamas when considering the thousands of innocent Palestinian women and children in particular who have been indiscriminately slaughtered because of disproportionate measures against a wicked and heinous crime committed by Hamas.Human life is so very precious, yet one would not think so with over 40,000 Palestinian people slain, people who simply want a State of their own with its own secure borders. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.

And then when one considers the despot, Josef Stalin who, having mass murdered many thousands of his own people, including his top Generals for fear of them turning against him, then linked up with the Nazis at the beginning of WWII until Hitler turned and invaded Russia. He then threw millions of ill-equipped Russian soldiers into the meat-grinder to eventually overcome the Nazis in Eastern Europe, to secure and protect the ‘Mother’ country. Not satisfied with that though, he then took a leaf out of Hitler’s book and devoured half of Europe, which he and his successors held onto as the USSR for decades to come.

Then there was a ray of sunshine as Gorbachev took over the Russian reins and we saw the bloodless break-up of the USSR (the end of the Cold War.......or so the naive thought). Countries previously under the Russian boot were now able to function autonomously as independent nation states. That is until the ex-KGB head, Vladimir Putin took over the reins of power, a little man with a massive ego who “wants to make Russia great again” (where have we heard a similar phrase to that before?) Another case of lessons not learned, having illegally invaded Ukraine, sending thousands of young Russian men to their deaths in the process, and all to boost his own pathetic ego.

Napoleon did it, Hitler did it and now Putinis doing it, along with Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel who is occupying Gaza and the West Bank (illegally). Lessons not learned and at great cost, which I fear is going to cost a great deal more yet.

Lessons unlearned to one side for a moment, it was good to see so much evidence of people in local communities and institutions marking the occasion(s) of Remembrance Sunday, and then Armistice Day.

I was mightily impressed with the outdoor displays of poppies in Launton as viewed on the internet. I particularly liked the war memorial and the village pump. The effect of the poppies pouring out of the spout of the village pump was quite inspiring. I remember as a small boy, still in short trousers, having my own yoke across my shoulders with a couple of small pails, one hanging either side, accompanying my mum to the pump to fetch some fresh water to our house which unbelievably, despite having been built as late as in 1939, along with 1, 3 and 4 Green View, Station Road, was built with no running water installed.

One could see from the photograph that some considerable effort had been put in on behalf of the village to commemorate Armistice Day. Hats off to all who were involved!

It was lovely to see also through Rochester all the street lamp-standards displaying very large red plastic poppies at a time when many Local Councils are cutting back on so very much. We had a very well-attended lovely service at the Garrison Church in which I participated, delivering prayers for the world and the Exhortation prior to the sounding of Last Post, the two minutes silence and the sounding of Reveille. Always, no matter how many times read or heard over the years, it is always a very moving experience.

I had the good fortune in 2018 on the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI to participate in the evening ceremony of Last Post at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, where bugles from the Ypres Fire Brigade sound off Last Post every evening of the year, every year, in commemoration of those who died in both WWI and WWII, especially in the Ypres salient in WWI. If you have never witnessed it, I highly recommend it. Quite apart from the ceremony, the walls of the arch of the Menin Gate are covered in names of those who perished but have no known grave. It is when you witness things such as that, that you wonder in total dismay how the likes of Putin can wage war against fellow Europeans who suffered so very much during the past two World Wars, sending more and more young Russians to their deaths.

So, this year’s Armistice Day is behind us and now we approach the season of goodwill as we come into Advent leading up to Christmas and thinking, “What to buy? What to buy?” How prepared are we all, I ask? I wonder if those of you of my generation are thinking to yourselves, “Hang on a minute, wasn’t last Christmas just five minutes ago?”

The years seem to turn around so very much faster the older we get. Certain events you are convinced in your own mind happened just five months ago; then somebody or BBC News tells you it was five years ago.

I know one should never wish one’s life away; old Jack Spence to whom I was apprenticed all those many years ago used to say to me, “Don’t wish your life away, Ant, it will go fast enough, believe me”, and he was so right. That said, I am hoping the next four years go quite quickly in the knowledge that thereafter we will not have another episode of Donald Trump in the White House. But then again, we must be careful about what we wish for.

I fear we will be going through a period of turbulent years with Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu, climate change, and ever-increasing food prices. But hey! We are British and we have known even worse, but we are still here, so why worry? After all, 2025 is another year!

Just remember that awful final line from the film, Gone with The Wind? “After all, tomorrow is another day”.

Keep healthy and stay SAFE!

TonyJeacock, MInstRE | The ex-Launton Boy | December 2024