Armistice Day Centenary 2018

Had I been a free agent, I would have liked nothing more than to watch the Armistice Celebrations in Edinburgh this morning. In the event, I watched them on the television coming from the Cenotaph in London.

I observed the two minute silence with thousands of others over the country and then watched the endless parade past the Cenotaph of representatives from every organisation connected to the military.

I feel sad now that I wasn’t old enough to ask my Grandmother how she felt about losing her only son in the Battle of the Somme or why even as an adult, to ask my mother and aunts how they coped as teenagers with losing their big brother. If only we realised at a younger age that these questions will haunt us when it is too late to ask.

Remembering Robert Swinton Young 1897- 1916 who died in the field hospital at Boulonge from his injuries aged 18