Brothers in Arms

A very low key, scaled down remembrance service around the war memorial in Kendal’s Market Place this morning. A lone piper, a couple of buglers, a few veterans and a handful of dignitaries made up the “official” presence, but there were still quite a few members of the public around, all maintaining a safe social distance.
Nonetheless, it was still a moving ceremony - possibly more so than normal due to the simple nature of the proceedings - and I’m glad we decided to come down to be part of it.
We then took a walk down to the site of the old K Shoes works where another - much less well known - memorial stands. This commemorates the sacrifice of those workers who gave their lives in the First World War, and was relocated to its present site when the ill fated K Village was built. Now that particular white elephant is no more, and we await the opening of the new Travelodge in due course. Looks like the memorial is safe for the foreseeable future though, and it was good to see a wreath had been laid on behalf of the present day workforce. Unlike the main memorial in town, there were no additional names added for 1939 - 45. Perhaps no one from the works lost their lives in WW2 or maybe their names are only recorded on the main memorial?
I’m sure there were many ceremonies planned for today around the country, which have had to be cancelled or significantly scaled back. Let’s hope that next November, we will once again be able to gather en masse to commemorate the fallen.