"They Shall Not Grow Old" Peter Jackson's WWI film
Discussion
The commemoration of the First World War was actually really rather well managed in regard to sensitivity and almost modern in the way that things like religious and cultural sensitivities were handled. It didn't start that way, it was fortuitous that Fabian Ware a member of the British Red Cross reported a lack of proper recording of battlefield gravesites, which evolved into a strategy for finding purpose built cemeteries in which to bury of the fallen, and a means of addressing personal and collective grief in respect of the war.
For a start there was no precedence in the way graves or names of the missing were recorded, all were considered equal in death, whether they were commissioned or other rank.
Most soldiers who died were buried overseas, including some in graveyards in remote locations like North Africa and the Near and Middle East, where their graves were not accessible to their relatives for mourning. Additionally many soldiers died or went missing presumed dead and their remains were never recovered, or their battlefield grave site was lost. The idea of commemorating them on war memorials in settlements both at home and in the country in which they died provided a focus for people's grief, based on the idea that their name was still remembered even if their remains were lost. The cenotaph and the grave of the unknown soldier are the ultimate expression of this idea, the former is literally an empty tomb, the latter a universal symbol of grief for those lost with no known grave. The cenotaph is also no really related to any modern religion, the design is based on a classical form predating Christianity, obelisks and bronze figures were often chosen for much the same reason.
For a start there was no precedence in the way graves or names of the missing were recorded, all were considered equal in death, whether they were commissioned or other rank.
Most soldiers who died were buried overseas, including some in graveyards in remote locations like North Africa and the Near and Middle East, where their graves were not accessible to their relatives for mourning. Additionally many soldiers died or went missing presumed dead and their remains were never recovered, or their battlefield grave site was lost. The idea of commemorating them on war memorials in settlements both at home and in the country in which they died provided a focus for people's grief, based on the idea that their name was still remembered even if their remains were lost. The cenotaph and the grave of the unknown soldier are the ultimate expression of this idea, the former is literally an empty tomb, the latter a universal symbol of grief for those lost with no known grave. The cenotaph is also no really related to any modern religion, the design is based on a classical form predating Christianity, obelisks and bronze figures were often chosen for much the same reason.
Pothole said:
unny you should mention that daft cow. I have been blaming her for the irritating rise in mawkish sentimentality and people turning everywhere into flower and candle covered shrines since her death, but I was brought up short by the Radio 4 commentary on the Remembrance Day parade when the chap said that in 1920, the year the Cenotaph was unveiled in stone rather than the wooden structure which it replaced - which it had been intended would only be temporary, the flowers left by it reached ten feet deep!
Spot on. That's when grief went from a private burden to a public performance . I don't blame Diana (not much anyway) but the British public's appetite for quivery lipped mawkishness has been near insatiable since her death . I still am bemused that the biking community have become near obsessed with poppy madness - flags , leathers , slogans and so on . Was it Wootton Basset( sorry , Royal Wootton Basset ) that triggered the phenomenon ? The latest trend is turning up en masse to some old soldier's funeral 'to give the hero the send off he deserves . All well and good , and plenty of Insta -worthy virtue signalling there, but excuse my cynicism, but wouldn't the poor old bugger have benefited from such support while , y'know , he was still alive ?
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