General Chat

and Haig Fund isnt stamped on the button now....plus you dont get a pin due to health and safety nonsense.

we don't have leaves on poppies sold in Canada


and I can remember a time in England when you were asked to give a larger donation for a poppy with a leaf and stalk than for a poppy without a leaf

ie, you had the option of which one you bought.

http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/early/poppy3_early_years.html

an enlightening read.

Please Please!!!! If you are going to wear your poppies with pride
can you also make sure you wear them correctly with the leaf pointing
to 11 O'clock thank you. To symbolize the ending of the carnage, that marks the ending of the war.,

WHY DO I WEAR A POPPY?

Why do I wear a poppy?
I’ll tell you if I may,
Because I believe remembrance
Is not only for one day.

I wear it for the fallen,
And for those falling still.
For those who come back broken
In body or in will.

For the parents, spouses, siblings
Where bereavement takes its toll.
Whose pain will never leave them,
It eats into their soul.

For the wino on the corner,
Of his old life nothing’s left.
Now he wishes when in battle
He had died a hero’s death.

For the lad who loved a kick-about
In the park with all his mates,
But now his legs are held together
With pins and metal plates.

For the selfless men and women
Whose final journey home
Is in a Union flag-draped coffin
On comrades’ shoulders borne.

For all those marching proudly
In Remembrance Day parades.
My poppy’s worn in gratitude
For the sacrifice they made.

Anne Starr

The General

By Siegfried Sassoon

“Good-morning, good-morning!” the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
“He's a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

"The Hero - Poem by Siegfried Sassoon

'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the mother said,
And folded up the letter that she'd read.
'The Colonel writes so nicely.' Something broke
In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.
She half looked up. 'We mothers are so proud
Of our dead soldiers.' Then her face was bowed.

Quietly the Brother Officer went out.
He'd told the poor old dear some gallant lies
That she would nourish all her days, no doubt
For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy.

He thought how 'Jack', cold-footed, useless swine,
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried
To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
Except that lonely woman with white hair. "

Siegfried Sassoon

pleased to hear it was just a wrinkle :-)


so ....... what about Siegfried Sassoon?

Why the ?John McCrae at the end of that beloved poem?

just a typo these things happen - Gr msgs centre made a mess of some non ascii characters

The road from my house in France to England takes me past Amiens and across the ww1 and ww2 battlefields. We still have bullet marks from ww2 in the walls. A lone Brit is buried in the local churchyard - he was killed on my father's birthday. The bits and pieces of another few dozen are buried a few miles away.

I have more male rellies from the C20 buried in France than England. I find it all a bit depressing so this time of year so I go by another way.

Men don't fight for valour, to save their country or any noble cause that is all made up later on. They don't choose to be where they are and often know little of the enemy or the causus belli. They fight for their mates, their family back home, their horse, from sheer bloody mindedness to survive. There is nothing glorious about a death on the battlefield or on a hospital bed.

For that reason I have always shared my grandfather's ( a professional soldier) antipathy towards the flags and brave parades though he always turned out on Remembrance Sunday.

If civilians were forced to watch war in real time on tv with the noise at its actual level and somehow the smell its popularity would be far less. You can see what happens when a peace loving civilian population are forced into war by the exodus from Syria.


Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Thought to have been written between 8 October 1917 and March, 1918

WOW!!

That does surprise me!!!


some part of this site is still working ................................


a slight digression

I discovered yesterday that another part is apparently not working. I had 8 pms between Sunday afternoon and yesterday evening. NONE of them showed up as notifications in my home email

The Poppy is on its way
............

Thank you for your email.

It should be shown on our site as this has been requested to be added by our technical team.

....................

Rollo

Why the ?John McCrae at the end of that beloved poem?

It is well known that John McCrae, a Canadian doctor, wrote that poem on May 3, 1915 and first published anonymously in the magazine Punch on December 8 1915. McCrae is identified as the author in the Index to that year's volume of Punch.

The poem was inspired by the burial of McCrae's friend, Lt. Alexis Helmer who was killed in the Second Battle of Ypres.

John McCrae himself died of pneumonia on January 28 1918

I do wish they sold them in other formats eg adhesive labels, pins it is quite difficult to "wear" a trad. poppie with modern clothes.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
—?John McCrae,

https://goo.gl/R4iwqL

They have to be reminded every year, so sad they wait til the last minute too.

I am a member of the British Legion and we started selling them in the supermarkets on Saturday.
Am wearing my poppy with pride

Jan x

Wearing my poppy with pride, don't care if it is early. I also buy a wooden cross for a Fred Daisly every year & put it on our war memorial. Do it nearer remembrance day. I have no connection with Fred but when I googled my house I found out that Fred & his family lived here, he was killed in action in 1st world war & now feel I have to remember him.
Hilary

I have e-mailed GR Support.

Let's see what happens this year. I have just renewed but have downgraded to standard, if they don't put up a poppy I won't renew next year.

How can you have a history site that disregards history. They know that many of us will have found many relatives serving and dying in the World Wars. That's what family trees are all about after all, finding out about relatives,

Email support. I did. Have you?

[email protected]

On last years thread on Suggestions, the then Community Manager did say the Poppy would appear this year. Unless it’s been added to some sort of Reminder list, new staff may not remember.

Us Old Foggies, or families with current or recent Military connections, may expect a British organisation to display the symbol. The younger generation may not.

Poppies have always been on sale in this area last fortnight of Oct also house collections organised by the Royal British Legion.

It is not compulsory to wear a Poppy, everyone remembers the fallen in a different way, having strong links with the forces and having several military camps a stones throw away including the special forces, I'm wearing my Poppy with Pride.

We Will Remember Them.
Lest We Forget.

Thank you for your comments.

There is little point in expecting a thread on General Chat to be noticed by GR staff routinely scouring the boards. Unless, of course, someone reports it.

on the whole I don't suppose it matters,
how/when we remember,

re my first post, I've been in hospital for a week and was surprised it was poppy time already............

Bob