Post by Waverley on Jul 2, 2007 17:55:18 GMT 1
Seeing as I was unable to make the 91st Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme Commemorations for the first time since 1990 I was rather understandably gutted. The 1st of July on the Somme is an opportunity not only for me to pay homage to the men of the 15th, 16th and 17th Battalions of the Highland Light Infantry but also a chance to meet the dozens of friends that I have met over the years whilst visiting the cemeteries and battlefields of Northern France.
However all was not lost as I had learned that the Royal Highland Fusiliers the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland were holding a Memorial Service in Glasgow Cathedral to mark the 90th Anniversary of a similar service held in the Cathedral in memory of the men of the 16th and 17th Battalions of the Highland Light Infantry.
I am not a very religious man but I have to say that I was deeply impressed by The Revd.Dr.Laurence Whitley service, which included the wording that was taken from the original service back in 1917 and now engraved on the Highland Light Infantry at Authuille, which I had erected on the 80th Anniversary in 1996.
The words of that service from 1917 are no less poignant today than they were back then …
“ From a hundred lonely graves in that foreign land – from the spots where they fell, and which now are sacred spots for us - our dead are asking us when we mean to erect that monument. From trench and shell hole where death found them, their voices call – young, musical voices, the voices of boys still in their teens, the voices of martyrs on life’s threshold. And they ask a better Britain as their monument. They ask it of you and me. Shall we not go from this place resolved to build it?”
Part of my pain of not being able to get over to the Somme was eased by attending this service and has renewed my faith in the people of this city.
However all was not lost as I had learned that the Royal Highland Fusiliers the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland were holding a Memorial Service in Glasgow Cathedral to mark the 90th Anniversary of a similar service held in the Cathedral in memory of the men of the 16th and 17th Battalions of the Highland Light Infantry.
I am not a very religious man but I have to say that I was deeply impressed by The Revd.Dr.Laurence Whitley service, which included the wording that was taken from the original service back in 1917 and now engraved on the Highland Light Infantry at Authuille, which I had erected on the 80th Anniversary in 1996.
The words of that service from 1917 are no less poignant today than they were back then …
“ From a hundred lonely graves in that foreign land – from the spots where they fell, and which now are sacred spots for us - our dead are asking us when we mean to erect that monument. From trench and shell hole where death found them, their voices call – young, musical voices, the voices of boys still in their teens, the voices of martyrs on life’s threshold. And they ask a better Britain as their monument. They ask it of you and me. Shall we not go from this place resolved to build it?”
Part of my pain of not being able to get over to the Somme was eased by attending this service and has renewed my faith in the people of this city.