Rememberance Day - Veterans still living.

[Comosus]

My Grandad also fought in North Africa, but he died before I was born.  My other grandfather is alive though, 84 this year.  To be honest though I'm not exactly sure what he did.  I know he worked for the MoD, and he said he used to work in the building which is now MI5 (I think it's called Thames House).  My Great Uncle is also alive, he's 81 (he joined up when he was 14!).

Every year I wear my poppy with pride, however this time my 5 year old son asked me why I had a flower. I tried so hard to explain to him what it was all about but I don't think he fully understood. He sat with me though and watched some of the service on TV (we intend to take him to a local service next year when he is little older). We feel it is something he should know about and with my husband being interested in Military History you can be sure he will learn about what happened.

World War 2 is taught more at schools now.  My parents didn't learn anything about WW2 at school because it wasn't considered history then.  I leant far more about WW2 than WW1 at school, especially considering at GCSE I leant about Nazi Germany (1918-1945) in history.  I haven't ever been taught about WW1 though which I feel is disappointing.  I have been trying to find out about my Great Grandparents during WW1 and I don't know much about it.

Nowadays we are lucky to have heard the stories and know what our ancestors did to make us what we are today. In 30 years , if not less, they will probably have been forgotten by many. The younger generations today are not interested in what happened 60 and 80 years ago. They are only interested in today and tomorrow.

Personally I think it depends on the person.  I've always been interested in history, and in genealogy for that matter since I was about 8 as my mum had a huge printout of the family tree.  Interest in a certain aspect in history will always decline as there will be less people around who remember it.  It's far easier to be interested in something if there's someone who can tell you about it, or something which intrigues you, like a medal for example.  It brings it closer to home when someone you know or knew fought in the war than if someone you never knew did.

Andrew.

[Zelley]

Thanks to all those that are keeping this thread alive & fresh
with important points and a few names to remember
from A to Z.

[philipsearching]

Well said, Zelley!

We have roughly 25 years before the last of those who served in WW2 will be gone - this may seem like plenty of time, but it passes so quickly.  The challenge is that many people are not willing to talkabout their experiences.

My mother was a child in London during the blitz and was also evacuated - she refuses to talk about it.  Her father served from 1942 to 1946 but would never discuss the fighting.  The only story he told was about when he was attached to an RASC unit and his job was to organise food and accommodation for spies and resistance fighters before they were flown to Europe (his greatest challenge was to requsition the correct amount of food because he never knew from one day to the next how many people to cater for!).

Please God we will never have to live through such times again.

Philip

[CarolBurns]

I agree with you there Philip.

Let's hope we never ever have to go through that again

Carol

[exessexgirl]

My Dad's 81 yrs of age now. Joined up in London,when his Father died, as he was then homeless. He crossed on the D. Day landings, drove a lorry onto Sword Beach. He was at Bergen Belsen, and saw the "prisoners" coming out when it was liberated. At home, he had photographs of the piles of corpses. He never spoke about the war, and it is only these last few years he has spoken about things he saw. I managed to get his Medals for the campaigns he served in. HE didn't want them, it was me who persisted. We owe them all so much. I don't think we will see their like again, god help us.  Lyn