Remembrance Sunday saw a big turn out which coincided with the actual date of the 1918 Armistice. As the picture shows there was brilliant sunshine on a dry day and participation by all the village youth organisations and the two schools. The last post was sounded, the church clock struck 11 (thanks to Gerry O'Mara who has been adjusting this erratic mechanism recently) and the names on the first and second world war Roll of Honour were read out.
A few years back there as some debate in Cranfield Express and elsewhere about why some memorials say 1914-19. 1919 was the official conclusion of the war following the signing of the Versailles Treaty. Although the Armistice was a ceasefire with no surrender by Germany, the treaty dealt with the country as a conquered and guilty perpetrator of the war. It was subjected to punitive reparations, stripped of territory and forcibly demilitarised. No national leader including Lloyd George, the PM, had the strength or vision to point out that this simply meant that Germany would be back, when it felt stronger, seeking to alter the terms. It was a disaster based on a mistaken belief in military success.
The First World War was a political failure at the start and at the end. But no political leaders paid any price for that. While we remember those who died without question, we should also question why the British and other national governments went into the conflict without seeking a sane alternative. They did exist. The fighting solved nothing.
Photo: David Moyes
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