Qamar Rafiq
ON the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when the guns fell silent, we remember those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them. Remembrance Day, informally known as the Poppy Day which has been observed on the 11th of November in the UK and Commonwealth member States, since the end of the First World War. The members of different faiths, cultures and backgrounds come together to ensure that no-one is forgotten, nationwide tributes are held to commemorate the sacrifices of soldiers who fought at the frontline to defend our freedom and honour. The schools, offices and churches also observe two minutes of silence throughout the country. More than 15 million paper poppies will be distributed this year across the UK. Many of us do not know, how did the red flower become such a dominant symbol of remembrance of the sacrifices made in the past wars? The story arises from the battlefields of colossal destruction caused by the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th Century which transformed bare land into the fields of blood-red poppies, growing around the bodies of the dead soldiers. Notably, scarlet corn poppies grew up naturally in rough conditions of unfertile land all over Western Europe.
In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders once again broke WW1. After the conflict was over, the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the barren and devastating battlefields. The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realized by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem in Flanders Fields. The British Legion describes the poppy as a “symbol of remembrance and hope.” Following WW1, the poppy was then known as a symbol of remembrance in the UK and Commonwealth member states. As a tear falls, ache soars, darkness melts, I tussle to pen the epic tale of five brothers who lost their lives one by one to uphold freedom by the courage and the soul. When war broke out Albert and Walter promptly decided to enlist to the 2nd battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment. The older brothers Fred, Alf and Arthur also joined the 16th Cheshires, a Bantam battalion.
Albert and Walter sailed to France in June 1915 and were soon surrounded by death. Always together, the soulmates transferred to the newly formed Machine Gun Corps in January 1916 and spent weeks on training and trench duties. On March 14, the 5th Brigade Machine Gun Corps war diary reported one casualty. It might have been all silent on the western front, but it was the day Annie Souls lost her first son to the war. Walter’s unit was hurled into the battle of the Somme on July 20th he probably would not have known that a day earlier, brother Fred had gone over the top nearby with the 16th Cheshires never to be seen again. Walter wrote a joyful postcard home from the hospital and was dead from a blood clot by the time it was delivered to his beloved mother. Albert, the first to enlist, was the first to be killed. Alfred and Arthur were identical twins who were born an hour apart and died five days apart. Fred was never found, but his mother kept a candle burning in the window in the hope that he will return one day.
Alfred went from the 16th to the 11th Cheshires who, from their diary entries, were badly mauled in the early days of the Somme. They suffered appalling casualties again at Messines Ridge and Ypres in 1917 and the great German spring offensive of 1918 when Alfred soul met his death. Family legend says that Arthur, by then a lance corporal attached to the 7th Royal West Kents, lost all will to live when he received news of his twin brother’s death. Annie Souls had a torment week when she received a letter from Prime Minister Herbert Asquith in 1916 conveying the “sympathy of the King and Queen for Mrs Souls in her great sorrow”. WW1, also known as the Great War, began after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria caused 20 million deaths which left a lasting mark on the face of humanity. Families were torn apart; people were slaughtered and cities across Europe were destroyed. Nevertheless, there are some war facts which are both shocking and amazing. As war broke, British soldiers went into battle with just a cloth cap for protection, however, most of the soldiers suffered facial injuries. In 1918 a pigeon, Cher Ami, one of about 100,000 homing pigeons used during the war, managed to save 500 US soldiers. The scale of animal use was extraordinary, with the British Army alone boasting 510,000 horses by 1918. This year again we pay tribute to the ultimate sacrifices of everyone who participated in WW-1 but in a different way after normal commemorations are scaled back significantly. As a result of COVID-19 crises, the public is barred from the Cenotaph wreath-laying for the first time in its 100 years of history and community Royal British Legion parade cancelled. You might have been triumphant, unwounded, or ready for another war but deep within you, you cling to the scars of war, you carry the unstitched memories of war, the times when you had to dig into the foxholes to evade gunfire, the times when you hate to see human bloodshed, missing families, and home. Freedom is never free – when you go home tell them of us and say for your tomorrow, we gave our today.
—The writer is freelance columnist based in UK.
