Service of Remembrance at Western Dover Docks Railway

There have been times in my youth when events related to Remembrance have felt distant and impersonal, but this year the culmination of the 70th Battle of Britain year and the meeting of individuals, whose lives have been touched by tragedy, has made services such as this personal and emotional.

In Etaples in June the WW1 Memorial reminded me of my father's experiences, and then meeting Muhinda Singh in August at the 70th Anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Britain, combined to stir up deep thoughts.

As we gathered today to weep and to mourn and to remember, we represent those who can no longer attend.

We don't know the people on the lists on the walls of memorials, but what we do today is remember that they were all mothers, brothers, sisters and family.

For years now the numbers of people who can actually remember has dwindled and remembrance has begun to be less raw and less like an open wound. In these first 10 years of the 21st Century, things have changed. As new wars have been fought, we have become involved and it has been made personal again.

The stunning memorial is rarely seen by anyone other than those attending this service, which is such a shame considering it has an emotional message to share.

Throughout the service I was reminded of the thousands of people passing through the Western Docks onto the continent in WW1. I also recalled the debt we owe to the millions of men who marched down Slope Road (now called Road of Remembrance) to the harbour in Folkestone. I pondered on the sacrifices made by the workers on trains and in dockyards.

Seeing our young people today with medals on, can only mean that they too have made sacrifices, seen the death of their friends and experienced the horrors of war. As a post war baby I grew up in a peaceful world and the mental pictures of stories told to me in my youth, grew dim.

Yesterday a Company of Gurkha Rifles returned to Shorncliffe Camp, but there were four soldiers missing, killed in action. This is no longer impersonal, and Remembrance Services will never be the same.