Dulce et decorum est...........

Not a song lyric tonight but the title and penultimate line from Wilfred Owen's poem.

I know lots of you have blipped poppies today but ASG's original blip had such an effect on me this morning that I felt I had to do something on the Remembrance theme.

My grandfather fought in WW1 and for years I had his medal awarded to all survivors. I recently gave it back to my Dad, it just felt right that he should have it.


When I was a boy I had a friend called called Clive ( who was much later to be my Best Man). Clive's grandad lived just down the road and on occasion we would call in to see him, he always had biscuits and fizzy pop, and he liked the company. Clive's grandad was known as Major Cooper but as a small boy I never wondered why.
One day when we were about 15 we called and after a while Clive said "Show them your medal grandad". The Major demurred but eventually after much persuading he took a small box from a drawer and opened it to reveal a smallish cross on a maroon ribbon, with the words "For Valour"... a Victoria Cross!

After much more persuading he also showed us a Croix De Guerre.

It took us ages but we eventually wheedled the story out of him.....As a Lieutenant he had been ordered with his men to storm a German Machine gun nest...off they went charging across the field...when the smoke cleared he found himself alone in the German position surrounded by about a dozen Germans..............and armed with only his service revolver.........which he had fired six times so it was empty......to his amazement the Germans surrendered. His men lay scattered across the field riddled with machine gun bullets.

As teenagers we were in awe...a real hero....but then the Major taught me a lesson I never forgot.......he wasn't a hero he said, he was lucky, his men who had given their lives were the heroes and he was proud to have served with them. The VC wasn't his, it belonged to all of them, he'd been promoted to Major but the promotion belonged to all of them, and the Croix De Guerre had been awarded by the French who wanted him to have it as the action had been on French soil, but it belonged to all of them.

I don't think I've ever met a prouder or more humble man, sadly he's long gone and so is Clive taken as a young father of two beautiful little girls by cancer.

So tonight I'll raise a glass to the Major and my grandad and all our heroes.

Nasdrovya and Das vidanya