Remembrance/Armistice Day (11 November)

[Andy78]

Did you even read the article you posted?

 

The vicar did this out of conern for non-Anglicans not for 'ethnics', non-Anglicans have been rather more than 'marginal to say the least' in this country from before the Church of England was even created and certainly are today and were during WWI.

 

As always, why let the truth get in the way of a good old rant.

[Plain Talker]

roy you are talking bullspit again, as usual.

 

As the granddaughter of a first world war veteran, I am proud to honour the people who dacrificed their lives and their health for us, and our democracy, no matter what their colour or creed.

 

I honour Johnson Beharry VC, Walter Tull and their ilk.

 

They did not say "well, I'm black, so I won't fight!"

 

Let me present the poem I performed at an anti-racism event last year, called "Walter Tull And Family History" by a poet called Stuart Butler.

 

and can I point out, particularly, the passage in red, to our "friendly" dronfield racist, who supports the poppy days, but is incensed that the monies raised are going to the likes of Johnson Beharry VC....

 

the men of Tull's regiment certainly did not care that he was a black man, the son of a slave....

Walter Tull and Family History

 

It was a typically dank Remembrance Day,

When I biked out to Lydiard Millicent,

Through Wiltshire lanes and sodden yellow leaves;

I went to see Mr. Arthur Tull, a relation of my mum’s,

Who had a family tree going back, he reckoned,

To the 18th century seed drill Tull, good old Jethro.

We didn’t discuss the fact that 4% of white Britons

May well have black slave ancestry,

Nor did the TV show any West Indian or Asian old soldiers

Marching beneath the umbrellas, laying any wreaths,

And when we talked football and the good old days,

We didn’t mention Walter Tull, Tottenham inside left

Until he was traumatised by Bristol City bigots,

Back in those imperial golden days before the Great War.

Walter, the London grandson of a slave,

Transferred to Northampton Town,

Then courted by Grimsby and Glasgow Rangers,

Until he joined the 1st Football Battalion,

The Middlesex Regiment,

Fighting on the Somme, and maybe meeting my footballing granddad,

Becoming a sergeant, and then 2nd lieutenant Tull,

The Second ever black professional footballer,

And the 1st ever black officer in the British Army.

2nd Lieutenant Walter Tull,

Once a printer, grandson of a slave, orphaned son of a joiner,

KIA 25th March 1918, aged 29,

Eulogised by his Commanding Officer,

“The battalion and company have lost a faithful officer

and personally, I have lost a friend”,

And so popular with his men,

That they repeatedly tried to get him back,

As he lay dead in No Mans’ Land,

He must have had the common touch, Walter,

Even though he was an uncommon man.

But I didn’t discuss any of this with Arthur,

How could I? I hadn’t heard of Walter 20 odd years ago -

But next season, when Swindon play at Northampton,

I’ll visit his Garden of Remembrance,

And I’ll take a poppy from me and one from Arthur,

And one from my dad and my grandad

And one from my brother-in-law,

And his dad from Bristol City,

So the future can reclaim the past

And so the past can redefine the future,

A future of comradeship way beyond the confine of colour.

© Stuart Butler

[Plain Talker]

Ok let me say I meant on ethnic grounds just like PT ,south africans and ozzies are white so again what percentage are non white?

 

south africans are white? you do talk tommyrot, roy, I think mister Mandela and mr Thabo Mbeke, and the rest of the black/ mixed race majority population in SA might differ in their opinions. (not that they fought in the war, I'm pointing this out in answer to your completely ludicrous and absurd statement that the "South Africans are white")

[Lou Jen 1978]

any know where i can buy one in town. Looked everywhere on fargate, high street etc.

 

Thanks

[medusa]

Last year they had them on the Customer Services counter of Wickes. Don't know if they had them in all of the chain though.

[blueandwhite]

Not sure,i've not seen anyone selling them this year which is a shame.

[Merry_Legs]

The WRVS shops/canteens have them in the hospitals.

[scottf]

WHSmiths usually has them in and i would guess marks and sparks will have.

[rosieparker]

I thinks most places will start selling them from next week. I have been told to sell them at our school after half term.

[IRONMONGER]

WILLIAMSON HARDWARE in Broomhill have sold poppies every year for more than 40 years.