Tag Archives: First World War
Remembering
Today is remembrance Day in Canada, Veterans day in the US. I thought it would be appropriate to share this post from 2014. When we visited the Commonwealth Military Cemetery at Essex Farm, near Ypres, Belgium, our guide pointed out the grave of V.J. Strudwick, who was killed in action January 14, 1916 at age […]
Remembering The Dead
On this Flashback Friday we go back to a post from September 6, 2014. At the time I visited this German war cemetery I never dreamed that three years later I would be living in Germany. It is a solemn place and a stark reminder that there were no winners in the First World War. […]
Remembering in 2023
I don’t remember when Remembrance Day (Veterans day in the US) first seeped into my consciousness. Probably around the time I started school, which makes it more than 60 years ago. My grandfather, I knew, had been a soldier, as had some of the other men from the church my family attended. They were veterans […]
So Young!
With Remembrance Day on Saturday, I am reposting some of my thoughts from a visit to Europe in 2014. When we visited the Commonwealth Military Cemetery at Essex Farm, near Ypres, Belgium, our guide pointed out the grave of V.J. Strudwick, who was killed in action January 14, 1916 at age 15. The official age […]
The Famous Poem
“In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place,” – John McCrae In the days leading up to Remembrance Day, I am reposting some past thoughts on war that were stirred up by visits to European battlefields. The names of the battlefields are different, but nothing else seems to have […]
It Isn’t Over Yet
This Saturday we will pause to remember Canada’s war dead. As we lead up to this time I am reposting some of my earlier reflections on war and the battlefields. This one is from September 2014. A century later, it haunts them still. The last Canadian veteran of the First World War died in 2010, […]
The Other Side
In this week leading up to Remembrance Day I am reposting some of my pieces on past wars. Today a visit to a wartime cemetery, on I had never heard of before. We know our own history. We don’t always think of others’. This was one of the very first posts here, from September 2014. […]
The Will
Saturday will be Remembrance Day, a time set aside to reflect on the memories of those who died serving Canada in wartime, and to pray for peace. These days it seems the world needs peace more than ever. The genesis of this blog in 2014 was a summer vacation in Europe. I visited a lot […]
Some Things Never End
As conflict in Ukraine brought on by the illegal Russian invasion shows no sign of ending, I’ve been thinking of the aftermath of the war when it finally does end. Maybe it is the date – August 6, the anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. When the guns stop firing […]
The Costs of War
Time to take a look back with a post from this date in 2015. I figure you either haven’t read it becasue you weren’t a subscriber back then, or have forgotten it. When we toured the First World War battlefields in the Ypres area of Belgium last summer, the enormity of the human toll was […]
random thoughts from lorne 
Recent Comments