Guest 904- Registered: 21 Mar 2013
- Posts: 312
a) A seafront parade and event?
b) An event, or series of events, at the Western Heights/Swingate Down?
c) An open air service of commemoration?
d) Other (please state)?
A poll that I'm running over on our Facebook page, it would be interesting to hear what the forumites think?
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
d)
For the men...
-Either; a living individual be given the identity of a dead soldier and be set to congregate in an open space in relation to the date of death/battle or a representative number (percentage wise) of the proportion lost from the town. (all towns and villages)
[Say, half an hour to represent each year of the fighting]
For the ladies...
-Have all the woman wear an 'X' to 'celebrate' the fact that it was (most of all) due to the tremendous waste of life between 1914 and 1918, and their being called upon to do the work of men, that they 'won' the right to vote.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 904- Registered: 21 Mar 2013
- Posts: 312
OK, I'll nod thoughtfully at that suggestion Tom, I think the first part of your reply in particular could be developed into something...
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
a sea front event would be my choice as it is accessible for most people - not sure about a service of commemoration as their is no-one still alive from that conflict i believe.
Guest 904- Registered: 21 Mar 2013
- Posts: 312
We still commemorate Armistice Day Howard!
I'm just trying to establish whether there is any support for doing anything in Dover. No point in trying to sell an idea to various organisations if there is no backing or ideas forthcoming...
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
armistice/remembrance day covers all conflicts though paul so there is no reason for that to ever end.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
have something along the sea front but extend it into the town center up as far as the town hall,pencester and canought park.i'm sure there is enough renactors and other associated millitry stuff to go around.may be some serving military might do some displays or stalls to show off there wares.
Guest 756- Registered: 6 Jun 2012
- Posts: 727
Lots of Towns and Villages have local history groups with tremendous pictorial resources, maybe they could be approach to hold an exhibition in the Town Hall or Connaught Barracks?
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
I see news that an online archive of the last will and testaments of WWI soldiers that died in the field has gone live, almost.
It seems that it is not to be something for the poignant browser, but an opportunity to see a copy of a particular soldier's bequests, at £6 a pop...
https://www.gov.uk/probate-searchIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
Some staggering statistics portrayed in a way which was meaningful to me:
If the spirits of those killed on the Western Front were to march, four abreast, the parade would start at 9 a.m. on a Monday and finish at 4 p.m. on the following Saturday. This would be 386 miles long, roughly the distance from Paris halfway through Switzerland. (Joseph E Persico.from his book "11th month, 11th day, 11th hour",
I assume that Burlington House will still be standing so how about projecting a black and white film onto the building of marching troops for this duration. It should be superimposed by falling red poppies and the names of local men and women killed in this conflict.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
How very odd, I have had a similar image in my head ever since this thread first appeared, though I have not heard of Joseph E Persico before.
Yes indeed, behind those few names on each memorial there is a vast Host lost to life.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 904- Registered: 21 Mar 2013
- Posts: 312
It isn't just the cost in lives, it is also the cost to Britain (and other countries) of lives lost to us. Amongst those many casualties, there would have been future scholars, scientists, politicians, surgeons etc, whose talents we were robbed of and who may have played a part in our country's development...
Guest 977- Registered: 27 Jun 2013
- Posts: 1,031
Something unique to Dover, and an indication of what was to come?
Also, on a seal safari trip recently we had the remains of Richborough port pointed out to us, departure point for most of the combatants and worthy of being recognised.
Talking to Andrew Richardson at the bronze age boat replica this morning he came up with a brilliant idea, I'll leave it to him to explain.
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
Following on from Ray's posting perhaps a ceremony and commemoration at each of the sites in the town where bombs or shells landed and on the days on which they landed.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Ray: Richborough was the extraordinary temporary port which the British Army built to transport stores and munitions across to France. Folkestone was the departure point for most of the unfortunate combatants.
Guest 977- Registered: 27 Jun 2013
- Posts: 1,031
Hi Ed, thanks for the info, some fog of war and historical confusion coming in here!
I got my info from a recent (in years) tv program and the likes of
http://www.open-sandwich.co.uk/town_history/richborough_port.htm.
I started my working life at Pfizer in a block-constructed building next to the Haffenden rubber factory that I was told was a WWI PoW camp - long since demolished.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
WWI, gone but not forgot...
From The Telegraph.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 697- Registered: 13 Apr 2010
- Posts: 622
How about building on an existing annual event, such as the Zeebrugge raid anniversary or the Dover Patrol Memorial? As well as being an act of commemoration, this would serve to underline the history of Dover as both a frontline town and port. Ideas could include inviting the Royal Navy to have an official presence, e.g. parade through town with Royal Marine band, and perhaps a Navy Day in the port by inviting warships from the Royal Navy, Belgian Navy, German Navy, etc. These could be open to the public and also serve to highlight the history of the original foundations of Dover as an Admiralty harbour.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Dig to uncover last remaining model of WW1 battlefield built in tribute to 50,000 killed comrades
Surviving soldiers from the Battle of Messines Ridge in 1917 made the mock battlefield - complete with trenches, dugouts and wire - on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, as a tribute to their dead colleagues
"A dig is set to begin to uncover Britain's last remaining model of one of World War One's bloodiest battlefields.
Surviving soldiers from the Battle of Messines Ridge in 1917 made the mock battlefield - complete with trenches, dugouts and wire - on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, as a tribute to their dead comrades.
The scale model built by German prisoners of war, which was also used as a training camp ahead of the final push in WW1, is about to be excavated and reburied.
Archaeologists will begin charting the site - the only example of its kind left in the UK, which was planned out in painstaking detail by troops returning from the conflict which cost 50,000 lives. .."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/dig-to-uncover-last-remaining-model-of-ww1-battlefield-built-in-tribute-to-50-000-killed-comrades-102823823.html#HTkApno Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
"It was heartening to read about the alternative events being planned for the first world war anniversary.[Anti-war activists battle to get their voices heard in WW1 centenary events*] Unfortunately, here in Folkestone a permanent feature rather than a transient event is being planned to commemorate those soldiers who passed through the town on their way to the western front. Seemingly ignoring the fact that these soldiers are already remembered by the 1922 war memorial and a nearby brick pillar, as well as "The Road of Remembrance".
Step Short, a charity chaired by Damian Collins MP, has been given permission to build a 14-metre-high stainless steel arch, only yards away from these already existing memorials at a cost of around £500,000, of which £350,000 is coming from local authority and county funds.
Supporting what Roger Lloyd Pack says in your article, is it right in these straitened times to expend this amount of money on an unneeded further war memorial, when it could be more usefully employed in other ways, such as supporting physically injured and mentally traumatised soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? One can only hope that even at this late stage Step Short will think again.
Nick Spurrier
Folkestone"
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/10/conscientious-objectors-past-present
*
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/08/anti-war-activists-ww1-centenaryIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
