In Rememberance

Today was Armistice Day, this year marking ninety years since the end of the First World War, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. I have a great respect for the men of this generation, those who saw unimaginable conflict. Regardless of one's views on war and the validity and necessity of the two world wars, I am compelled to remember those who lost their lives defending fulfilling what they could only perceive as their duty.

The red poppy symbol is extremely poignant to me. This flower, a common weed in Europe, grew prolifically in Flanders Fields, the battlegrounds of Belgium and France where significant battles of WWI were fought. The intensive shelling of the conflict had naturally caused great disruption to the ground. The poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the battlefield for precisely this reason, because it thrives in disturbed soil. The symbolism of this, that life, beauty and hope can thrive even in the most turbulent of circumstances, is something I find very moving. The fields that were coloured red from the mass of poppies in bloom would also come to be stained red from the blood of the casualties of the battles fought on those very fields.

I am full of admiration for the men who saw such sights first hand and lived to tell the tale. Those still alive to this day are now a very small group indeed. Harry Patch (born 17 June 1898) is a man of many titles. He is 110, making him Britain's second oldest living man. He is the last surviving British soldier to have faced action in the trenches of the Western Front, and is the one of only three surviving veterans of the First World War still living in the UK.

Mr Patch didn't speak publicly about his war experiences until he was 100. In 2003, he took part in a television series called World War I in Colour, in which he recalled coming face to face with a German soldier. Remembering the commandment 'Thou shall not kill", he was unable to kill the German, rather shooting him in the leg to bring him down. Ten years after first speaking in public about his experiences, he is now partially deaf, but was interviewed by Falklands veteran Simon Weston on ITV news as part of the lead-up to Remembrance Sunday. When asked if he thought WWI had been worth the lives that were lost, he answered, "No it wasn't. Not worth one". His remaining plea was that we "remember the Germans, as well as our own."

Right: Henry Allingham (112), Harry Patch (110) and Bill Stone (108), represented the RAF, Army and Royal Navy respectively at a ceremony at London's Cenotaph.

Stuart Bennett, a navy pilot in WWII, attended an Armistice Day memorial in his home town of Croydon. His own grandfather had been injured in combat during the First World War. As he paid tribute to the 'glorious dead' of both world wars, he declared, "They gave their tomorrow for our today."

Remembering and honoring those who have perished amidst conflict this country was engaged in, whether or not those individuals believed in its validity, doesn't mean I take gratification from the losses of the opposing forces. I can express gratitude for the sacrifices of British soldiers, while mourning the loss of German civilians. I can feel sympathy for the families of soldiers killed in Iraq, which doesn't diminish my sadness at the casualties of Iraqi citizens. I take no glory in the wars of the past. But I am grateful for the positive ways they may very well have shaped my future.