Remembrance Sunday.

One to remember again.

Shortly after ten my daughters and I left the house and walked to the beach at the end of the road. To the left of the photograph is the groyne alongside which my friends and I paddle out when we surf kayak and the sea is up. It is the groyne where, on 30th April this year, Steven Sparks, a surfer, was killed an hour or two after we had left the beach following a great morning session.

We we weren’t on our way to the beach though. We were walking along to the town memorial for the parade and service which, in beautiful sunshine, saw a great turnout. I have paraded here myself, many years ago now. I remembered friends from back then and, as I waited, an aircraft flew overhead. I looked up and it was old friends Steve and Tom remembered then, pilots both though seperated in flight by sixty years.

My old unit was not there but the regimental association had laid a wreath. It was also the regiment of Lance Corporal George Davey, a soldier I had known, who in 2007 returned from Afghanistan leaving a young wife and young children to mourn his passing.

And then it was over to Martham. Some on here were present on this day, eight years ago. Betty, on the right, passed away two years ago.

Betty’s cousin, the cousin of Johnny Wiseman to whom the memorial was placed along with his colleague Babe Haddon, had contacted me.

There was no-one else to whom John’s logbook should be left, did I know where it could go? It is now entrusted to my care, along with his medals and wings, to join the effects of Babe.

I stayed all afternoon; it was a lovely few hours. On the way back i stopped at the memorial to plant my own cross, joining those left earlier in the day.

…and then onto the town memorial at the church. Had I found this on Remembrance Sunday 2002 there may have been no memorial; I looked in the wrong place thankfully.

I was here for another reason though. Lats summer a colleague, who had left to start a new life, died. I heard that Moxey now had a headstone and I went to say hi to him.

I thought that was it for tonight but had been told about tonight’s Antiques Roadshow while colelcting John’s things. The final piece, moments ago, was of a lady telling of her grandfather, an air gunner. She read a letter he sent to his wife, written for her in the evnt of his being lost on operations. I found it very poignant.

He and his crew were shot down and here, randomly, is someone to remember for one moment.

Name: BURRELL, EDWARD FREDERICK
Initials: E F
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant (Air Gnr)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force (Auxiliary Air Force)
Unit Text: 78 Sqdn.
Age: 21
Date of Death: 12/08/1942
Service No: 804335
Additional information: Son of Albert Charles and Rebecca Harper Burrell; husband of May Emily Violet Burrell, of Forest Gate, Essex.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Grave 1.
Cemetery: MEAN COMMUNAL CEMETERY