Remembrance Day 2018
“Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!
An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling and flound’ring like a man in fire or lime …”
Although Wilfred Owen (“Dulce et decorum est”) was describing the horrors of the First World War, all wars are the same. Men and women die. Military personnel, innocent civilians: people on both sides. There is destruction and suffering.
The First World War officially ended at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Since then, this moment has been commemorated annually to remember all members of armed forces who died in the line of duty.
To mark the centenary of the Armistice, Remembrance Day was once again observed by St John’s College, where some 30 Old Johannians and family attended, to honour the sixty Old Johannians who made the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War, as well as those who fell in the Second World War and all those who have suffered, and continue to suffer, as a result of conflict.