insideKENT Magazine Issue 32 - November 2014 | Page 162

CHARITY

REMEMBRANCE DAY
AT 11 O’CLOCK ON THE ELEVENTH DAY OF THE ELEVENTH MONTH IN 1918,
THE GREAT WAR ENDED. THIS WAS TO BE THE WAR TO END ALL WARS. IT
WAS NOT, BUT THOSE WHO PERISHED DOING THEIR DUTY ARE NOT LEFT
TO DIE IN VAIN – WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Remembrance Day (or Armistice Day) takes place
on the Sunday closest to the 11th November
every year (although before WWII it was always
observed on 11th itself). Once a celebration of
the end of a devastating conflict (over 10 million
military personnel were killed between 1914 and
1918, not to mention around seven million
civilians), it soon became a day on which to
remember those who had fallen in all conflicts.
The heroes. The brave souls who had given their
lives for their country, and to whom we still owe
a debt today.
Traditionally, the nation wears a paper poppy to
show their support for not only those who died,
but those who are fighting today. The poppies
were first worn in 1921, when artificial poppies
were made by ex-servicemen (which gave them
an income) and the money from their sale went
to fund others who were not so fortunate as to
have work. Eventually, the British Legion was set
up and took over the making of the poppies.
The money made from them each year goes to
help serving ex-servicemen and women when
they are in need. It also funds a number of
charitable projects. To support the Legion’s work,
you can buy a poppy to wear, but there are other

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items available too including wristbands, car
stickers, wooden crosses, and much more at
www.poppyshop.org.uk.
Each Remembrance Day we hold a two-minute
silence at 11am. This mark of respect allows us
time to think of the sacrifices those who died
made. These two minutes unite a nation in
contemplation. Solemn though it may be, it is
also peaceful and moving, and this coupled with
the Remembrance Day parade through London
to the Cenotaph in Whitehall makes this a day
that stays with many long after it has ended. The
poppy wreaths that are placed around the
Cenotaph by the queen, the prime minister, and
many others, and the sight of the surviving soldiers
marching or being pushed in their wheelchairs,
still so proud and so dignified, is a thing of beauty
that comes from something so terrible.
As Laurence Binyon’s famous “For the Fallen”
so eloquently states: “At the going down of the
sun and in the morning, we shall remember
them.”
www.britishlegion.org.uk