4 Comments CherryPie on Aug 4th 2014
The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.
Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, August 1914
Photo Copywright – www.1418now.org.uk/lights-out/
The outbreak of the First World War was a cataclysmic event in world history. We know now that the enormous losses, huge economic cost and unprecedented political upheavals incurred by the conflict would change the world forever. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems extraordinary to us that no one was able to intervene to halt the slow descent into war triggered by the unexpected assassination, in distant Sarajevo, of a foreign royal by a 19-year-old terrorist. Were Europe’s statesmen blind to the catastrophe that they were bringing down upon the world?
The British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, was among those to glimpse the enormity of the imminent war. For almost ten years he had aligned Britain into a deepening friendship with the great European powers of France and Russia. Although this new relationship had alienated Germany, Grey had tried to keep Britain free from any firm commitment to intervene should a wider European war break out. Yet in July 1914 he stood at the heart of the crisis as ultimatums came and went, and the political and military decisions were taken that made it increasingly likely that Britain would stand beside France and Russia if either was attacked by Germany or Austria-Hungary. The German invasion of Belgium en route to France finally tipped the balance, making Britain’s entry into war inevitable.
Late in the afternoon of 3 August, on the last day of peace, Grey stood at the window of his office in Whitehall and was overwhelmed by a sense of foreboding tragedy. As he looked out he saw that the streets lights were being lit down below. He turned to a visiting friend and observed, ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.’
12 Comments CherryPie on Aug 3rd 2014
This memorial has a special significance for me. My Great Uncle served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the first world war.
This large woodland has red and gold leaved trees individually dedicated to members of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).
A memorial plinth stands at the entrance to a central avenue of purple leaved trees planted as a tribute to the 29 members who were awarded the Victoria Cross, two of them gaining the award twice. HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was Colonel in Chief of the Corps and the RAMC planted a tree in the grove to commemorate her 100th birthday.*
*From the National Memorial Arboretum Guidebook Edition 4
11 Comments CherryPie on Aug 2nd 2014
…And Airborne Forces Memorial
The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces National Memorial, which is located at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, commemorates those members of the Regiment and Airborne Forces who have died on active service since 1940 and provides a place of pilgrimage, particularly to those who have lost family members overseas in inaccessible countries.
Around one thousand people attended the dedication ceremony on Friday 13 July 2012, including His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, as the Colonel-in-Chief of The Parachute Regiment.
The five-metre-tall bronze memorial depicting Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus, with his spear in hand, together with a paratrooper pulling his Bergan up the mount to the statue, took sculptors Charlie Langton and Mark Jackson two years to complete.
10 Comments CherryPie on Aug 1st 2014
This memorial remembers the terrible loss of life which occurred during WWI when a force famously including the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) attempted to land and defeat the armies of the Ottoman Empire. They were attempting to capture Constantinople and secure a sea route to Russia. There were huge cassualties on both sides.
The monument includes a tree sculpture of dead oak trees, pollarded to represent the arms and hands of injured soldiers reaching upwards in hope of rescue as they lay in the mud among the unburied dead.*
*From the National Memorial Arboretum Guidebook Edition 4
6 Comments CherryPie on Jul 31st 2014
The Amethyst Incident, also known as the Yangtze Incident, in 1949 involved the British Royal Navy ship HMS Amethyst being trapped on the Yangtze River for three months, during the Chinese Civil War.
About the Memorial:
The circular planting of 46 Chinese euonymus plants commemorates each life lost during the Yangtze incident in China in 1949.
A plaque alongside the memorial tells the full story of the Yangtze Incident. Inside the circle are a black polished granite monument and trees planted as a tribute to HMS Amethyst, HMS Black Swan, HMS Consort and HMS London which were the four ships involved in the incident.
The human cost in the four ships was 46 dead and 68 injured. The tree planted just outside the circle remembers the RAF Sunderland flying boat named D-DOG ML772 from 88 Squadron that, on the fourth attempt, landed successfully on the Yangtze River alongside HMS Amethyst to deliver medical supplies and a replacement doctor.*
*From the National Memorial Arboretum Guidebook Edition 4
6 Comments CherryPie on Jul 30th 2014
Now that I have finished sharing my Salisbury travels I shall return to my visit to the National Memorial Arboretum.
Formed in 1983, the Association is a focus for the men who served at the test sites and combines comradeship with the objective of recognition of the ill effects suffered by some veterans.
Beginning in 1952 and continuing until 1965 there were 21 major British nuclear tests and numerous minor tests at the sites listed on the memorial.*
The memorial (grotto) is a replica of a shell-decorated memorial situated on Christmas Island where some of the British nuclear tests took place.*
*From the National Memorial Arboretum Guidebook Edition 4
15 Comments CherryPie on Jul 29th 2014
