Remembrance Day

November 11th of every year marks the observance of Remembrance Day in England and many of the countries that used to form the British Empire. First created to honor the Empire's soldiers who had fallen during the First World War, the observation has come to acknowledge all those lost in the wars of the 20th century and beyond.

The symbol of the Day is the red poppy - a flower that grows in profusion over the remains of thousands of soldiers in Belgium and elsewhere, both most markedly across Flanders Field. Worn on the 11th, the Day is also marked, in addition to many different ceremonies, by a minute of silence at precisely 11 am (GMT) on that morning - the time when the guns fell silent and WWI finally ended.

In memory of my maternal grandfather, who fought in the American Expeditionary Force in 1917-1918.

And in memory of W. M. 'Billy' Fiske, 1911-1940, of the RAF Volunteer Reserve. His gravestone reads: An American citizen who died that England might live.