We will remember

Perhaps it is through being brought up during wartime, that Remembrance Sunday still brings a tear to my eye. Although maybe not quite as much as watching the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on television last evening.
It was heartening to see a steady stream of passers by pausing at the War Memorial in Romsey this afternoon, long after the formal Remembrance service and the ceremony of laying of wreaths.
As a teenager and Boy Scout, Remembrance Day was one of two ceremonial occasions during the year that I remember when the local scouts joined with service and ex-service organisations in a parade through the small town where I then lived. The other occasion was to mark St George’s Day.
On two occasions I had the honour of being the Standard Bearer for the Scouts, marching at the head of the troop of Scouts.  I am not sure what my feelings were at that time, but now I look back with pride all those years, happy in the knowledge that I had a small part to play in commemorating this special day in a nation’s life.

And so this afternoon, I felt humbled to stand by the town’s cenotaph and pause for a few moments, and heartened that a number of townspeople were doing precisely the same.