Traditional pursuits in November – part 2

 

Traditional pursuits in November – part 2

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The State Coach in which the Lord Mayor travels is over  250 years old and

 is guarded by Pikemen. It is drawn by six shire horses, a postillion on the

 first pair and the following four driven by a coachman on the box seat.

London has two mayors. The Mayor of London is responsible for the government of Greater London and is elected by Londoners. The Mayor of London may serve a maximum of two four-year terms. It is a position that was created in 2000 by the last Labour government and is political in character. The Mayor of London is responsible for improving London’s environment, ensuring among other things, that transport is efficient, helping the city’s businesses to thrive, attempting to provide sufficient and affordable housing.

It is a role completely separate to that of the Lord Mayor.

The Lord Mayor’s Show is held on the second Saturday in November every year. It dates from 1215 and is the oldest civic procession in the world, only being cancelled in the event of national disaster or disruption, like the 1665 Great Plague, the Reform Bill riots of 1830 and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

This year it falls on 11^th November, Remembrance Day. It is customary for a two-minute silence to be observed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the time at which the Armistice was signed in 1918.

It is a poignant moment when everything ceases for that two-minute period, in supermarkets, in educational establishments, the BBC, wherever it is practicable so to do. It will be observed prior to the commencement of the procession.

 Many floats representing businesses. youth groups, charities and others take part in the procession.

A new Lord Mayor is elected every year and the office reflects his position as the civic leader of the City of London, an area also known as the Square Mile. The Square Mile is London’s main financial centre. 

He is voted in by the liverymen belonging to the Great Twelve Livery  Companies - the Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths,  Merchant Taylors, Skinners, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners  and Clothworkers - and other livery companies, such as the Worshipful  Company of Basketmakers, participate by invitation.

The Lord Mayor’s Show focuses on a grand street procession, involving mediaeval pageantry and carnival. Participants include representatives of the armed forces, charities, youth movements, businesses and Londoners from various communities. It is a colourful, entertaining celebration culminating in a grand fireworks display.

Dona Nobis Pacem - Grant Us Peace

Dona Nobis Pacem

I went to Vimy Ridge thirty years ago and saw the First World War trenches and the cemeteries. It was a sobering experience. So many cemeteries, Allied and German and all harbouring the remains of wasted young lives. The saddest were those marked ‘Known unto God’ and the most moving and horrifying marked ‘Three soldiers of the Great War, known unto God.’

In other graveyards a single headstone marks ‘Seventeen soldiers of the Great War known unto God.’ Another such marks the final resting place of twenty-five unknown soldiers.

The two-minute silence we observe at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (the day marking the end of the Great War, 1914-1918, the war to end all wars) gives us an opportunity to stop whatever we are doing, wherever we are, to remember and reflect on the tragedy of war. The first minute is to honour those who died fighting for their country and the second minute is to remember those left behind, the parents, the widows, the siblings, the children.

The red poppy is the symbol most commonly associated with remembrance, though Quakers wear white poppies, the symbol of peace.

The following is taken from http://www.greatwar.co.uk/article/remembrance-poppy.htm

‘The field poppy is an annual plant which flowers each year between about May and August. Its seeds are disseminated on the wind and can lie dormant in the ground for a long time. If the ground is disturbed from the early spring the seeds will germinate and the poppy flowers will grow.

This is what happened in parts of the front lines in Belgium and France. Once the ground was disturbed by the fighting, the poppy seeds lying in the ground began to germinate and grow during the warm weather in the spring and summer months of 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1918. The field poppy was also blooming in parts of the Turkish battlefields on the Gallipoli peninsula when the ANZAC and British Forces arrived at the start of the campaign in April 1915.’

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a doctor serving in Belgium with the Canadian Armed Forces was so moved by the devastation he saw that he wrote ‘In Flanders’ Fields’ in 1915: 

In Flanders' Fields
                                                                                                                                          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.

The most telling epitaph is that written by John Maxwell Edmonds (1875 - 1958) in the Kohima Allied war cemetery.

‘When You Go Home,

Tell Them Of Us And Say,

For Their Tomorrow,

We Gave Our Today.’

Our future, the future of our world, is in our children’s and grandchildren’s hands – I hope they make a better job of looking after this beautiful planet than we have.

Hyde Park Memorial – 7th July 2009; 1st UK Armed Forces Day – 27th June 2009

Today, four years to the day after the terrorist bombings in London, a memorial to the 52 fatalities has been unveiled by HRH the Prince of Wales. The £1 million memorial consists of 52 stainless steel pillars standing 3.5 metres tall. They are arranged in four random clusters to represent the four separate locations of the attacks. Each pillar bears the name of one victim. A plaque naming the victims has also been erected at the site in Hyde Park. A minute's silence was observed. Hundreds more ordinary citizens were injured in the attacks.

It appears to be a beautiful monument and will remain as a reminder of an unforgettable day in our history.

What happened on 27^th June, just over a week ago? It was the occasion of the First UK Armed Forces Day. This date was chosen to follow the anniversary of the first investiture ceremony for the Victoria Cross on 26^th June 1857. The main celebration was held at Chatham Historic Dockyard, formerly a strategic Royal Navy base.

In attendance were the unelected Prime Minister and his wife, the current Defence Minister, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. Where were the senior representatives of the Royal Family? Perhaps the Prince of Wales was trying unsuccessfully to dissuade his younger son from his plans to go night-clubbing. Harry partied till the small hours, some say drunkenly!

Do we forget so readily the hundreds of thousands killed for our freedom? Remembrance Day in November is one day a year when the nation remembers and praises and gives thanks. Is it enough?