110th College Blog - A Fortnight of Remembrance

The past fortnight here at college has been one full of remembrances for those who died during the "War To End All Wars".  On Friday the 11th, the 98th Anniversary of Armistice Day, when the Great War ended at the eleventh of the eleventh of the eleventh month, we had a two minute silence, shared by the nation, and again on Sunday, the 13th, Remembrance Sunday, the nation fell silent again in respect.  Last week, on the 18th, the nation marked the "official" end of the Battle of the Somme which began on the 1st of July, one hundred years again, and with the bloodiest day for the British Army (19,240 killed).

The 18th of November may be the "official" end of the battle, but it was decided by generals meeting after the war.  The actual battle is believed by expects and historians to have lasted till about March the following year when the German tactfully retreated to the Hindenburg Line.  The battle taught the Germans how to become more prepared for defencive tactics in 1917; Passchendaele is the famous example.

The BBC website has a link to a site called Your Somme.  Here you can put in your name, postcode and, depending on the BBC Radio station you choose by county or country of the UK, you can then choose a regiment, then, after scrolling down the web page, you can learn of the losses your regiment faced on the first day and the battle overall.

For example, since I live in Inverness, I could have been part of the Seaforth Highlanders, who had 400 casualties (129 killed) on the first day, and 995 killed over the 141 days of fighting.  995 out of 419,654 of killed, wounded or missing British soldiers.

Another example is, being from Northumberland, I'd might have been in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, who had 1,643 killed on the first day, and 4,250 killed over the course of the battle.

All for 7 miles of enemy land.

I hope that we will always remember them and those who fought and died in later wars.

During my free time, I go to a writing class at Eden Court and I do a writing blog.  One of the writing class's homework in 2014 used the title "Foreign Fields".  So I wrote a poem in which a father's son asks his father why they're going to a foreign field and the father tells him it's to place a poppy in remembrance of a family member who fought and died in the Great War.  I decided the publish it on my writing blog.  Here's a link to Foreign Fields, and I hope that you will enjoy it.

We're already started to see the first hint of winter, frost here at college with snow up in the mountains.  Christmas is coming.

Wish us all luck.