Remembrance Day: A sad memory of RFMF

Remembrance Day: A sad memory of RFMF

11 November 2011

Pity that on this day, the Fiji media is more focused on the Sukuna bowl rather than the significance of Remembrance Day!

"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM" is to be seen in its totality that not only the individuals are remembered but also the principles and values that they and the societies, which they were a part of, stood for, fought for and died for.

Each year Australians observe one minute silence at 11 am, on 11 November, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts According to the Australian War Memorial, the idea for the silence is said to have originated with Edward George Honey, a Melbourne journalist and a First World War veteran, who was living in London. In May 1919, he wrote a letter to the London Evening News in which he appealed for five minutes of silence, to honour the sacrifice of those who had died during the war.

In October 1919, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, a South African, suggested a period of silence on Armistice Day in all the countries of the British Empire Throughout the war, whenever South African troops suffered heavy losses on the Western Front, a period of silence had been observed at noon in Cape Town. Fitzpatrick's suggestion was presented to King George V who readily agreed to the proposal. But after a trial with the Grenadier guards at Buckingham Palace, at which both Honey and Fitzpatrick were present, the period of silence was shortened. It is unclear whether Honey and Fitzpatrick ever met or discussed their ideas about the silence.

On 6 November 1919 the King sent a special message to the people of the Commonwealth: ‘I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that Great Deliverance, and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it.’

The King requested that a complete suspension of all normal activities be observed for two minutes at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month so that in perfect stillness the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead.’

The "Ode of Remembrance" is an ode taken from Laurence Binyon's poem "For the Fallen", which was first published in The Times in September 1914:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.

The line “Lest we forget” is often added to the end of the ode, which is repeated in response by those listening.

If you have not already done so, then please take the time to pause for 1 minute of silence and concentrate your thoughts in reverent remembrance for the soldiers of Fiji who died in serving their country, including those CRW that were betrayed by the murderer Bainimarama and were killed.

ENDS

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