Probably about the most disturbing and hard hitting photograph that I am likely to post, but it brings home why we remember on Remembrance Sunday and on Armistice Day and why the date and time 11am, on the 11th day in the 11th month is so significant and what it means. This is the day and time the guns fell silent on the western front in 1918, it’s at this time on this day that we recount the massive sacrifice made in war – not just for WW1, but for all war.

This is the capture of Meteren by the 9th Division. Stretcher-bearers of the Royal Scots Fusiliers collecting the dead after The South African Brigade attack on the 20th July 1918.

It is our privilege as veterans to carry the torch of remembrance, we carry the thread that binds us all the way to these fallen South Africans lying in the mud and devastation that was World War 1.  It’s this torch that we carry that marks all of our fallen in 1918, our fallen in 1945 our fallen in 1989 and it’s the same torch that marks our fallen in 2015 – it binds everyone who has served their country – and it stands as the marker of sacrifice.  As veterans, to hold this responsibility is a great honour and we are indeed a privileged few.

Rest in Peace brothers … We WILL Remember.

Photograph – Imperial War Museum copyright.  Posted by Peter Dickens