061111.Bradford, Cemeteries and Armistice Day
November 11, 2006 at 2:52 am | In Architecture, Bath, Bradford, Budapest, Conservation, Flowers, Gardens & Parks, Monuments and Memorials, New York, cemeteries - churchyards - and tombstones, countryside, cumulus clouds, people, somerset, towns | 6 CommentsFriday’s lecturer was a distinguished, and thoroughly British, structural engineer who had worked on all the great English Heritage listings. Out of all the case studies he projected, what struck me was his outfit. Accepting that it was a tad cold in the room, he wore a very formal heavy suit with a maroon vest and even had attached a gold pocket watch chain. His whole appearance was very colourful, which is how I came to notice that pinned to his label was a red and black poppy.
My grandfather’s occupation required him to frequently travel and these were two photos he took sometime in May of 1948. The first is the otherwise unremarkable skyline of Geneva, Switzerland but he had typed on the back of the photo that the League of Nations’ headquarters building (Palais des Nations) was located at the extreme right of the horizon line. (I believe the old League of Nations’ HQ building, Palais Wilson, is on the extreme left of the horizon line.) The second photo is of a then recent WWII cemetery in Arnheim, Holland, filled with wooden crosses marking the graves of fallen American soldiers whose bodies had not yet been sent home, or their grave markers made permanent with a stone cross.
Today in the US, Amistice Day is known as Veteran’s Day due to the events that occurred between the League of Nations building and this cemetery in Arnheim.
Please see my previous posted photo of a Hungarian WWI monument-like memorial, and here for the post explaining it.
The cemetery at Beckford’s Tower in Bradford, previously posted, struck my eye because of the incredible swirling clouds and its location on Lansdown Hill overlooking the city of Bath.
It reminded me of this last photo, which I grabbed off Wikipedia’s Photo of the Day a while back, and which features the cemetery in New York City that that grandfather is buried in.
It would appear Bath has fewer people to bury and fewer buildings to house them in than New York City.
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“a gold pocket watch chain”. I had been thinking what it is in the class, and now I finally got the answer. The colours of sky in these photos are incredible!
Comment by hsuehping — November 11, 2006 #
i have been curious about this red and black poppy pin for long time and finally got an answer today. Thnaks!
Comment by kris — November 11, 2006 #
By now Remembrance Day is nearly done on your side of the pond.
I leave you with this most famous poem of WWI. It was written by John McCrae, a Canadian soldier, doctor, and poet the day after a close friend was killed in combat:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.
Loved, and were loved, and now lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Comment by adrianer — November 11, 2006 #
This is the link Mimmu was referring to at Sydney DP, explaiining “Remembrance Day.”
http://sydneynearlydailyphot.blogspot.com/2006/11/armistice-day-remembrance-day-poppy.html#links
Comment by O'Reilly — November 12, 2006 #
Your photograph of the cemetery at Beckford’s Tower in Bradford is both beautiful and haunting. I can almost hear the long-forgotten voices of the dead speaking through those tombstones. Very nice work. Thanks for your compliment over at my website by the way!
Comment by Chris — November 13, 2006 #
sensitivity president long understanding suggested
Comment by stevonepps — March 28, 2009 #