Recollections of War: The Sinking of HMS Barham

        75 years ago today, the British Royal Navy lost their only battleship to be sunk in the Second World War.  Built in 1910, H.M.S. Barham saw action with the Royal Navy in both World Wars.  Having been part of the Battle of Jutland in WWI, she now shepherded supply convoys during WWII.  Sailing with a fleet in the Mediterranean off the coast of Egypt, the battleship H.M.S. Barham was identified by a German U-Boat on patrol, and suffered hits by three torpedoes.  Within minutes her magazines, which contained tons of high explosive, exploded.  859 men went down with her.  This was only British battleship which fell to the Germans during WWII.  It is fitting that we remember all those who have fallen serving at sea on the anniversary of the sinking of H.M.S. Barham.

Recollections of War: We Will Remember Them

        Today is Remembrance Day.  It has now been 98 years since the end of the First World War.  All of those who fought on both sides of the Great War have died.  Now it is left to us, as those who are still on this earth, to remember this history - and those who played a part therein.

        My family and I have a tradition of attending a Remembrance Day service in downtown Toronto most years.  It is very special to me as my grandfather attended with my father, I now attend with my dad, and God willing I will take my son one day too.

        So, to commemorate this Remembrance Day, here are some pictures from the ceremony and place where it was held.  As the poet says:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Soldiers Tower, University of Toronto.

It is solemnly wonderful to see upwards of a thousand people
gather to remember those who have passed on before.

The writer of the famous poem, "In Flanders Fields",
John McCrae, was a graduate of the University of Toronto,
and his name is commemorated on the wall.

Some of the many wreaths laid by the wall of names
to remember those who fought and died.

A sobering remembrance of those who have died
fighting so that others may have life.

"Their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth,
but lives on far away without visible symbol,
woven into the stuff of other men's lives."

Written, photographed, and posted by William A Moore