From the Top

Iwas asked by my grandson ‘why is it we have Remembrance Day, and not Remembering Day, because no one says ‘remembrance’ except for Remembrance Day?’ The answer, of course, is quite simple. A ‘remembering’ of something is to recall to the mind a memory; we might say ‘I'll try to remember to put the date into my diary.’ It is also to have something come into the mind again, remembering the place we met or the place we parted. But Remembrance is the act of remembering something, so, in the case of Remembrance Day, we remember something that is so terrible, we dare not forget. Most of us do not have a personal memory of military conflict, and those who did experience the Great War have all passed from this life. But by our ‘act of remembrance’ each November we add to the history of Remembrance, observed since the end of the First World War to remember the members of the armed forces who died in the line of duty, but also, we are reminded of the horrors of war in the hope that we would not see the like again. But it is more than that: Remembrance Day is once again an opportunity for us to look to the message of reconciliation, forgiveness and hope and to share that message with the next generation.

Liam Johnston, Executive Director