Rememberance Sunday

Sunday 14th November was a rainy day. Nevertheless I was determined to march with others from Kingsteignton to the cenataph and remember service men and women who had made sacrifices in the first and second world wars to keep our country free from invasion.


To remember also our young men and women who are in the forces fighting for justice and democracy to overcome tyrany in Iraq and Afganistan and other places not given publicity on television or in the papers.


We walked with umbrellas, but this was drowning the person in front or beside us. The pain of arthritis in my ankles and knees were agrivating but I told myself that this was nothing against what soldiers have to put up with.


After the Cenataph we went into Church listened to readings from the dignitaries and the school children from Rydon and St Michaels Primary. The children were so professional and confident.

Reverend Sandra Gill lead a very moving service. We sang hymns 'O Valient Hearts, who to your glory came.

Then another hymn close to our families heart ' For those in Peril on the sea' which always made my cousin cry for her daddy in the Navy also our Grandad who had survived both world wars on Ships HMS Revenge and HMS Furious both of which were bombed and eventually sank. In James Holland book 'Fortress Malta' he recounts how the Furious looked tired with a rusting hulk, but a later account ' what Furious lacked in terms of state of the art facilities it more than made up for with its food- freshly baked bread, real butter and plenty to drink'. At that time Grandad was steward, Petty Officer Stanley George Hearn. The Furious eventually was bombed and sank. Grandad was hit by fallen debris on the chest but he and his men were saved. He lived until I was 10 years old. He was made up to Chief Petty Officer and worked from Keyham,Devonport. Later we were to find out that my Father was with his regiment in Malta. His war was not over though because after he had met my mother in 1945 he was sent to Palestine.



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