(no subject)

[morgaine_x]

I can hear the Royal Newfoundland Regiment band as they parade to the War Memorial.

All across the country, it's Canada Day.

Here, it's Memorial Day.

Beaumont Hamel and the RNR




My great-uncle was one of the few who came back.

Comments

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, but local WWI histories like these make me so sad. Probably because I think the circumstances of the war was the most snowballing inevitable slide toward unnecessary war ever, and it was so terribly devastating. Also because this is a sorrowfully familiar narrative in regards to WWI stories. And, I don't doubt, because the cultural memory we have of it is built for melancholy.

This one got me the first time I heard about it:

http://www.siol-nan-gaidheal.com/iolaire.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iolaire

Is that photo of your great uncle?

[sobelle.livejournal.com]

local WWI histories like these make me so sad.

Indeed, me too... perhaps because it breaks the hugeness of war down into recognizable pieces where we can know the ones who died and suffer with the ones who were left behind.

Thanks for the Iolaire links. I hadn't heard of it before. My sister-in-law's late Mother was from Stornoway but she never seemed much interested in talking about it.

[yaaresse.livejournal.com]

That picture is in remarkable shape. Which is your great-uncle?