Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Whilst in Norfolk over half term, we walked through the cemetery in Earlham Road, Norwich. There you can find the “Soldiers’ Monument” For many years Norwich was a garrison town, and at one point, there were many unmarked soldiers’ graves in the cemetery. People began to feel this was wrong, and public subscription paid for this memorial, unveiled in 1878. It was placed in the part of the cemetery where there were already many military graves. Now there are [sadly] many more graves surrounding the statue  from wars dating back nearly 200 years [the figure is “The Spirit Of The Army”]

As well as The Royal Norfolk Regiment, over the years many soldiers were housed at the Britannia Barracks. It can be claimed that most, if not all, of the cavalry regiments of the British Army, with the exception of the Household Cavalry, were at Norwich at some time or other. You can learn some amazing things reading the inscriptions on the gravestones.

I photographed these two because the name on the left one intrigued me [Valorus was from a military family, and he was actually born on HMS Valorus] The two on the right are from 1917 [rear] and 1918 [front] The older one is for a serviceman from the Royal Flying Corps- the newer for someone from the Royal Air Force – which was already in existence by the end of WW1.

One of the other inscriptions [my photo did not come out, sadly] says the man buried there was “One of the 600” – yes, a Crimean veteran, who survived The Charge of The Light Brigade” in 1854 – and came back to Norfolk to end his life in his county of birth

It is too easy to think that ‘War Memorials’ are just WW1 and WW2 – they were around before 1918 – and sadly, many more have been erected since 1945. We must never forget those who died in War. But when will we ever learn the way of peace?

When will we ever learn?