we will remember them

Like most cities, towns and cities in the UK, Limekilns has a war memorial (see photos). I am a little tortured by the whole rememberance thing: it has an importance for me that is quite disproportionate. Part of it has to be being a baby boomer, my father having been a soldier, Uncles having been soldiers, and because of family members who died in the world wars. It is that thing that the death of any person diminishes us, about valuing people. Like the guy in “The Holiday”, I have a tendency to tears and have the capacity for grieving over people I never knew.

As a scout leader for some years, I found Rememberance quite harrowing, but had difficulty explaining the why of it to the Scouts I worked with.

But the promise made to the dead has always meant something:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

So I have a difficulty passing war memorials and CWGC graveyards. The Memorial at Limekilns is as typical as any can be. It is possible to research the names further, and indeed there are sites, including my brother’s that do this. I think I am his Scottish correspondent.

The list is incomplete, because many of the men remembered are remembered incompletely, if knowing a lot about them reflects “remembrance”. The names on the Limekilns memorial are evident: a little digging can bring (back?) to life in some way those men and women who died for the stupidity of the human race. I suppose I feel a personal responsibilty for fulfilling the promise to remember, although how do you remember someone you never knew?