Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "Unknown Soldiers and tombs around the world" video.

As you said the British Unknown Warrior was buried in Westminster Abbey amongst the kings. He is unique in that, unlike the other burials in Westminster, you cannot stand on his tomb. You can stand on the tomb of a king but not his. One tradition with regards the tomb is that after getting married a royal bride visits the tomb and leaves her wedding bouquet on the tomb. This was started by the Queens mother who had lost her brother during the war and decided she would leave her bouquet in his memory. Since that day all royal brides have left their bouquets as well. Not all who were buried were unknown. In one country a boy, whose father was killed in the Great War, was given the task of choosing who should represent his country's dead. He made his choice but he did so knowing it was his father who was in the coffin. At 11 am this Sunday I will be at our city's Cenotaph where the two minutes silence will be observed. Just as i did in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2917. My paternal grandfather was on of Kitchener's Mob. He was in the 128th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery and was at the Somme and Passchendeale. He survived the war and came home. How it effected him mentally I do not know, though I think I can have a good guess. One thing I do know is that it effected his hearing, firing those big 60 pounders day after day.
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Welshman2008 So true
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Hi everyone. Well just back from the Cenotaph. There was a massive crowd there. Normally it would be a few hundred but today there were thousands. As the Cenotaph is just next to a major road people tend to get penned in by the barriers next to it. But the police had diverted all the traffic. So there was people standing on the road as well as on the pavement, sidewalk for our American friends. I do not mind admitting I got rather emotional remembering those of my family who had served. I also thought of all of you here and any one of you who had served or had family who had. The one thing I wished is that my late father had been there. He was an army man through and through and I know he would have been there. I would have loved to have shared the moment with him.
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@copferthat During WW1 artillery batteries went from four guns to six and many of those extra guns came from batteries that had suffered casualties. Partly it was realised that bigger batteries were needed but it was easier to transfer trained soldiers to an existing batteries then take them out if the line to train up the replacements. My grandfather was, as I said, one of Kitchener's Mob. Originally he went to join the Hull Pals but they were looking for men with a certain skill set and he was asked to join the Royal Artillery instead. Like the Hull Pals, his battery was one of two raised locally in Hull and the surrounding area. But later during the war replacements came from other areas. I came across one replacement who came from Bradford. My fathers eldest brother went the other way. During WW2 he started out in the Royal Artillery, he was in the Territorial Army before the war, and was transferred to the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry to bring it back up to full strength after it had been devastated during battle. He later went on to join the Commando's.
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Some memorials to the fallen of WW1 are both simpler and more local. The Pals Battalions would be raised locally. It may have been men from the same factory, or local sports team or even people from the same street. I grew up in a Street called Ella Street just off Newland Avenue. Four streets away is a street called Sharp Street. On the wall at the end of Sharp Street is a plaque dedicated to all those who died during WW1 who came from that street. This is one of a number of such plaques around the city. Some are now lost, ironically destroyed during air raids during WW2. Others have been removed and now reside in the Hull Street Life Museum. The Royal Mail has an office not five minutes from where I live and it has two plaques dedicated to postmen who died during WW1. When I have had occasion to visit the office I have taken time to red the names on the plaque. The plaque in Sharp Street is still there and I understand one or two others are still in our near their original position. Where I have found them I have taken the time to read the names. And like anyone interested in history I have wondered what happened to them. A more recent addition to the street plaques is in the railway station. In 2014 a number of plaques was put on display carrying the names of all those passed through the station but did not return. Over the years I have taken time to read their names as well. Just seems fitting that for even a brief moment someone thinks of them. For all those who think that people in prison should do something fitting with their time. These plaques were made by the inmates of Her Majesty's Prison Hull. I understand that those who worked on the project did so voluntarily.
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@gringogreen4719 Thank you for your kind words, very much appreciated. One of the things that WW1 did bring about was the beginnings of the study of "shell shock" what we now call post traumatic stress disorder. So at least now it is recognised and treatments are available. I did read that many of those who fought in the Battle of Rorke's Drift would suffer from PTSD but it was of those things you did not talk about. Maybe one of the things that should be taught to all children through the world is the after effects of warfare, both the mental and physical effects. The true costs of war. When they became adults how many would be so keen to fight then.
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exileinderby51 They tried their best to forget it for obvious reasons.
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@copforthat I forgot to mention. I did try to find out more about my grandfather and his wartime service. His records, along with millions of others, were kept in a warehouse in London. The warehouse was destroyed in an air raid during the Blitz.
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@copferthat At least he was too tall for the Bantam Battalion. When war broke out they had so many people wanting to join they actually raised the minimum height just to reduce the number of people they had to deal with. Later they had to drop it so far that it was below the original minimum height. One recruitment office in London usually saw, pre-war, one man per week. The day after war was declared the sergeant who was in charge of the office found so many people wanted to enlist that he had to get a police escort to get to his front door and it took him 20 minutes to reach it.
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