Peter Larkin,
Somerset West
We are asked here in South Africa why we wear the red Flanders poppy.
November 11 marks 100 years since the armistice that commemorated the end of the horrific war that killed many millions.
It reminds us, my wife and I, of my father who served throughout that war, and of my wife’s father and mother, and my older sisters who served in the Second World War.
Wearing the poppy does not glorify war.
It honours those who accepted their duty to serve.
Carolyn Frost,
Bolander editor, replies:
Thank you, Peter, for reminding us of this extraordinary time (and day) in history.
On Sunday November 4, I listened with great interest to a BBC radio broadcast on the young war poet, Wilfred Owen, who died 100 years ago, just seven days before peace was declared.
He was, ironically, immortalised by his poignant observations of the brutality and relentless savagery of war, in Dulce et Decorum est, Anthem for Doomed Youth, and Futility.
The bugle he had taken from a dead German soldier was played at his graveside in Ors, northern France, and some of his poems were read, in commemoration.
