A Nation's Thank You
Date: 18th Nov 2018 @ 2:15pm
A Nation’s Thank You
Sunday 11th November 2018
As you all know from our World War One topic, this year is the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice which ended World War One. The Government decided that this should be marked not just with the traditional Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, but also with a ‘people’s procession’.
They called this ‘A Nation’s Thank You’ and set up a ballot for people to win tickets to take part in the procession. 10,000 tickets were available and when I entered the ballot in August I didn’t that that I would be lucky enough to win a place and so I was surprised and excited to receive an email in October telling me that I had been allocated a place in the procession and that I could take a guest!
So, last Sunday – 11th November 2018 – Mr Kemp and I set off on the train to London. The weather forecast had been for lots of heavy rain and the sky was very grey in Kent but when we arrived at St James’s Park in London the sun was shining and the sky was blue. We walked through the park and arrived on The Mall. The first thing we saw was Buckingham Palace and crowds of people. We went through the security check and were given a wrist band showing that we would be walking in column ‘L’.
We found the tent serving free teas, coffees, muffins and pastries and then found a spot to stand and enjoy our drinks and do some people watching! We saw lots of people and we took a photograph of our favourite couple - can you find the photograph of the two people in the queue sitting in their chairs?
There were lots of film crews and reporters asking people why they wanted to take part in the procession and many of their stories were about fathers, uncles, grandfathers and great, great grandfathers whom had been soldiers during WW1. Some people told stories about their mothers, grandmothers and great great grandmothers and their lives during the Great War.
We saw many people wearing their ancestor’s medals and a lot of them had wreaths to lay at the Cenotaph in memory of these soldiers. We took a wreath to lay on behalf of all of us at Guston CEP School to remember the brave soldiers who gave their lives for us during WW1. Many of those soldiers would have passed through Dover and Folkestone to go to France to fight and some of them may have worked at or flown from Guston Road Aerodrome which was sited where our school is now. A woman next to me asked me about my wreath and I told her why I was laying it and all about our school and what we had found out about the WW1 aerodrome on our site. She told me that she was laying her wreath for her great, great, great grandfather who had died at Ypres.
We all began to take our places in our columns and the enormous TV screens, which had been placed along The Mall, began to show the Service of Remembrance on Whitehall. Just before 11am the King’s Troop on Horse Guards Parade fired a WW1 gun and then Big Ben struck 11 and the 2 minute silence began. It was completely silent on The Mall even though there were 10,000 of us there. The gun was fired again to mark the end of the silence and then the Service began. We watched on the screens as Princes, Dukes, MPs and members of the Armed Forces lay their wreaths at the Cenotaph and we sang hymns and said prayers.
When the Service had finished, it was time for the Veteran’s March Past - thousands of men and women took part. All of them had either served in the Armed Forces or were widows or widowers of people that had served. They marched proudly wearing their medals and when they were commanded “eyes left” as they reached the Cenotaph, they turned their heads to look at the monument to pay their respects to the soldiers who had died in all conflicts. The crowds watching all clapped and cheered and sang along as the bands played songs from WW1 and WW2.
Then it was our turn. It took a long time to organise 10,000 people to walk past the Cenotaph and, after nearly an hour, we finally got there. As we approached it, I handed our wreath to a Scout who handed it to an official wreath layer to lay it with the hundreds of others - can you find the photo of our wreath being laid? As we walked past the Cenotaph we looked to our left and paid our respects and said ‘thank you’.
What an amazing and emotional day. I don’t think that I will ever experience anything quite like that again and I will remember it for ever.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
