REMEMBRANCE...

The first inkling of the impending season of remembrance came a few weeks ago, when we parked up in Skipton upon Swale, for one of our regular walks along the river bank.

There is a war memorial of boulders, marking the spot when a returning aircraft crashed damaged, killing two aircrew, and another civilian on the ground.

As with several of the surrounding World War Two airbases, it was manned by what we would now call “Commonwealth” flyers, from the Royal Canadian Air Force, and their memorial was decorated by two diminutive flags, Canadian and RCAF, stuck into a small block of wood.

The town became festooned with knitted tributes, poppies in great sheets on the Market Place clock tower, around the churches, and the imaginings of the Yarn Bombers.

The Sunday before the actual Armistice Day saw the customary parade and service at the War Memorial in Sowerby.

A detachment of soldiers from the Allenbrook Barracks, the Royal British Legion and numerous clergy were in attendance, for the annual litany of the fallen in two world wars, with the sad addition of two names from Afghanistan.

The two minutes silence was followed by the laying of wreaths. Each layer (from the King’s representative, in the persona of the Deputy Lord Lieutanant of North Yorkshire, Baroness Ann MacKintosh (our former MP) was shepherded with their wreath by scouts, guides or more junior “Brownies”.



(To read the rest of this article go along to your nearest stockist and buy a copy of the paper)