Sunday, November 10, 2002

For Sunday 10th November Remembrance Sunday dawns sunny but with a blustery, cold wind. There is a service in Stanley cathedral and afterwards the vets march to the Cenotaph to the East of Stanley. This is a large concrete cross with a huge bronze sword embedded in it, and stands in front of the Stanley cemetery. Behind the cemetery is the 1982 Memorial Wood where there is a tree planted in memory of each individual who fell in the Falklands War. Again, the SAMA contingent has been arranged by unit, and again there is some serious dissent about this. I hope whoever is responsible for this learns the error of his ways. The Duke of York and dignitaries arrive and proceedings get under way. Here, the custom is to read the names of the fallen and what is striking as this is done is how many lives the Falkland Islands gave in two world wars considering what a small population they were. Nobody has ever doubted their patriotism or willingness to stand up and be counted when it mattered. Nobody except the Whitehall mandarins perhaps. Following the service, the parade then marched off to the Memorial Wood where everyone was given a small wooden cross with a poppy affixed and a number inscribed. We had to find the appropriate tree and plant the cross, something which became a bit chaotic at times. But once found, it was very moving to be able to place your wooden cross where it belonged and reflect on the life it represented. My cross was for John Stroud, a steward on HMS Glamorgan, killed in the closing days of the war. You can read about him on his page in the SAMA Garden of Remembrance, www.sama82.org.uk Then I met Pancha again and he took me to his friend Budhaparsad Limbu's Memorial tree and posed proudly beside it while I took a photo. They were contemporaries, both Lance Corporals, having trained and started out on their military careers together, and Pancha is now a Captain. You can read about Budhaparsad on his page in the Garden of Remembrance too. There was a post-parade reception at the FI Defence Force HQ and once everyone had got a drink and settled down, the speeches began. Ordinarily a cause for groans, but like so many occasions on this pilgrimage, there is never anything ordinary about anything we do. Denzil Connick started off by telling us about Captain Tam Noble, who fought at Longdon as a Corporal in 3 PARA and was now just completing an eight month tour of duty on the Islands. During that time he and his detachment had undertaken a number of fund-raising exploits and today he was handing over cheques from two of them. By use of a rowing machine in the gym they had circumnavigated both main islands and raised £2016.43. For undertaking a battle march from Mount Pleasant Airport to Stanley, which they did in five hours, they raised £715.95. Rick Jolly then took the floor and reminded everybody why they were here and why they came here twenty years ago. He spoke of the Queen's Golden Jubilee and how he is carrying two gold medallions, struck by the Royal Mint, of the South Atlantic Medal which will be presented to Her Majesty on our return. He then spoke of the bravery of the Falkland Islanders and their under-reported resistance to occupation, drawing a parallel with the Island of Malta in the Second World War. They were collectively, and uniquely, awarded the George Cross. We, SAMA, had a solid silver replica of the South Atlantic Medal, also struck by the Royal Mint also with Her Majesty's permission, and we, SAMA were to present this medal to the people of the Falkland Islands when we depart on Wednesday. He then presented a display piece to the Commanding Officer of the Falkland Islands Defence Force, Major Peter Biggs. This was a panel with four small paintings of scenes from the war, with an arrangement of cap badges between them, one badge from every unit that participated in the campaign. Wandering around I came across Graham Penn who had framed a map of the Falklands in a large white board frame and had spent the last two years collecting signatures on it. I left the reception to continue my culinary exploration of Stanley's catering establishments. Today I took lunch at Shorty's Diner, so called because they serve food and the chef is not very tall. The food was good, and again I marvelled at how far Stanley had come since 1982. The great worry, expressed by many before all this development had taken place was that it would ruin the Kelper's unique way of life. But from what I have heard from many in recent days, that fear has proved unfounded. This evening I gatecrashed a reception by Falklands Conservation at which the guest of honour was the Duke of York. This body, a charity concerned with the ecology of the Falkland Islands, demonstrates one aspect of how this transition can be managed. Laws for the protection of the wildlife and the environment in and around the Falkland Islands is based on sound scientific advice, and a policy of putting principle before profit. That commonsense approach is typical of the Kelper. 9:32:38 PM     For Saturday 9th November There are three major war memorials here in the Falkland Islands, the Cenotaph which serves the same role as the one in Whitehall in remembering the dead of all wars, the 1914/18 Memorial which commemorates the dead of the First World War specifically, and the 1982 Liberation Monument. The Remembrance Sunday parade and service will take place before the Cenotaph tomorrow, so today we held our own Remembrance parade in front of the Liberation Monument. The Monument is very impressive, a semi-circle set into a road side bank in front of the Secretariat, there are sculptured plates with battle scenes, and the names of the fallen. The obelisk at the centre is engraved with the names of every unit and every ship that took part. We formed up in threes along the road, facing the Monument, and the public assembled on the bank besides and behind it. Someone organised us into units, Navy, Marine, Para, other Army units, and so on. I thought that was a pity since one of the remarkable features of SAMA, evident on normal Remembrance Sunday parades, is how everyone mixes together. The SAMA contingent on those occasions is unusual amongst all the contingents in being a medley of coloured berets. In SAMA everyone respects and admires the contributions of the other arms, and while they enjoy typical inter-service banter, they are all brothers-in-arms together. The Duke of York, a SAMA member by right, joined us with the Governor and the Commander British Forces Falkland Islands, and the service got under way. Anchored in the inner harbour behind us was HMS Leeds Castle. The prayers and hymns were brief, and so came the wreath-laying. This was the hardest part, this was the actual act of Remembrance and for some it was more than they could bear and someone turned away and left the ranks to be on his own. The hardest part for me was to watch the widows and mothers lay their wreaths. How do they ever square up their enormous sacrifice? I looked down the line and marvelled that these two hundred men had come together to hire their own aeroplane at a cost of a quarter of a million pounds to travel half way round the world to be here. It is worth recording at this point that the service charities have been very supportive in giving grants to anyone who found paying the costs difficult. Plus, some of the pilgrims anonymously paid extra to reduce the cost for someone else. So, one way or another, here was this motley collection of men and women, of every rank, of every arm, here to pay tribute and remember their mates or their next of kin, twenty years on. It must surely be the finest act of Remembrance since the war. Thank you Rick and Denzil for making it happen. After the service, the Duke of York chatted with some of those present. He was introduced to our Standard Bearer and asked if he thought the trip might help him lay any ghosts to rest. "It already has," he replied, "last night, for the first time in twenty years I was able to sleep through the night." Only long after the service was over did we start to drift away. The Duke eschewed his transport and walked the streets of Stanley to his next engagement, some retired to the bars, some to the shops, others back to their digs to relax for the first time since we arrived on Thursday. During the afternoon there were further visits laid on to any sites the pilgrims wished to go to, the Falkland Islanders ever generous with their time and support to take people around. In the evening was a reception at the FIDF hall with free beer and a finger buffet. The hall was jam-packed with a sizeable proportion of the Stanley population in attendance. It was a great treat to meet more Kelpers, as they are known, and find out more about their thoughts and feelings of it all. From their perspective, they find it a great privilege to host the pilgrims and they are deeply grateful for their liberation. Comparison between the healthy state of the Falklands economy and the dire straits of the Argentine economy is only one aspect. The other is that had Argentina won, few of the Islanders would be alive today. It should be remembered that the Junta was a murderous regime, with a track record of butchering its own people if they were a nuisance. The Islanders are also proud of their way of life, civilised and crime free, again in stark contrast with Argentina and even, it has to be said, London. The evening was crowned by someone going round with a handful of wooden cocktail sticks and plunging one into the heads of the unsuspecting. Fortunately the Duke of York had left by this stage, and luckily I escaped being zapped too, but having a serious conversation with a tall, bald, matelot with a piece of wood sticking out of his head was a surreal experience. He had to leave it in because if he took it out he knew he'd get another one stuck in. 1:18:20 PM

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