Sunday 11 November 2012

For The Fallen







Sgt Percie Mitchel Lambshead MM, DCLI, KSLI




For The Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon, British Museum.

14 comments:

  1. Amen
    I bet there were a whole slew of dead Nazis around Percie he looked tough as nails

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    Replies
    1. Oh he was. Survived Torch, Tunis, Cape Bon, Pantelaria, Anzio. His battalion was decimated three times. He was blown up by a shell on the Anzio breakout. In '45 he was training for the invasion of Japan. Fortunately the Bomb put paid to that.

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    2. So he was blown up by a shell in 43 and by 45 he is already training for combat once more?
      Damn they sure don't make em like that anymore.

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    3. Blown up in '44, Will.
      Fortunately Japan never happened due to the atomic bombs.
      I will leave it to your imagination what he said to the first Ban the Bomb activist that knocked at the door.
      But you are right, they don't make em like that anymore.
      Remind me to tell you about the time a teenage gang threatened him in the street in the 50s when I was a baby..... :)

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  2. Nice words and very well said. I watched the Cenotaph ceremony today and was grateful that for once this year the weather was good. A beautiful crisp clear autumn day and a very moving event.

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    Replies
    1. yes, it was moving. I was pissed off to read a decline to attend from a self important, pompous little twat who is apparently acting Presidident of the UCL Student Union.

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  3. Through all generations, we will remember.

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  4. Here's to those men and boys who gladly sacrificed so much and became those "rough men" so that the rest could "sleep peacefully at night"

    We stand with you as allies then, and now in remembrance, from across the pond,

    John Dickerman
    Santa Cruz Warhammer

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