Madam,

Like millions of others around the UK, I attended the Remembrance Sunday service at my local War Memorial in the village of Pennal.

I was gratified to see how many hardy souls had made the effort from such a small community, including one medal-bedecked lady, fairly well advanced in years, who made her way the hundred or so yards from her home using her trusty ‘walker’ for support.

I have no strong religious belief and I have to confess to being a little cynical at times of the human race; a trait my partner says is not really nice. Be that as it may, it is good to see that the intrinsic goodness of us mortals can shine through occasionally and bring us together in a praiseworthy manner.

I do not seek to glorify war in any way. It cannot be glorified. It is perhaps sometimes a necessity but always it’s a dirty business. That we seek to remember those that paid the ultimate price in two world wars is to recognise that we, in the West at least, by and large enjoy a lifestyle that would never have been possible were it not for the sacrifice of others.

The Napoleonic Wars are not fêted in such a way, neither is the Crimea or the Boer War. They are consigned to history and the names of the rank and file who died are so filed with them, mainly in the Book of Forgetfulness.

I suspect that such a fate awaits the two world wars and with the passage of time they too will be consigned to history and only the names of the political leaders and top generals will be recalled by way of reference. Hence the phrase ‘lest we forget’ is also a plea not to consign these two periods of colossal bloodletting to history too early. There might yet be something the human race can learn from them.

Those who promote the wearing of white poppies argue that the red poppy also conveys a specific political standpoint, and while The Royal British Legion has no official opinion on the wearing of white poppies, opponents of the white poppy argue that the traditional red poppy already encompasses the sentiments claimed for the white poppy, such as “remembering all victims of war”, and consider that it undermines the message of remembrance.

Personally, I feel that the red poppy conveys the messages of both pacifists and realists.

In November 2014, white poppy wreaths on the Aberystwyth War Memorial had to be replaced after they were forcibly removed from the Memorial and thrown in a bin. That’s not what our forebears fought for! They fought to preserve our freedoms; hard won over hundreds of years.

I’ve heard of no white poppies in Flanders fields – and no red ones either when the fighting was done. So, pass your message on to your kids and encourage them to pass it on again and again through the generations – “lest they forget”. With a bit of luck we may even be able to prevent such huge tragedies in the future.

?

Yours etc,

Bob Dunn,

Pennal,

Machynlleth?.