Lest we forget …

This memorial at the north end of Cheltenham’s Promenade commemorates those who died in The Boer War. The one in front of (The) Queen’s Hotel remembers those from The Crimean War. Ironically that peninsula, part of Ukraine, was invaded by Russia in 2014. Tomorrow, Ukraine celebrates its independence from the former Soviet Union while Russia still occupies the Crimea and swathes of Eastern Ukraine.

When I first saw these memorials 50 years ago it never crossed my mind that a new war could ever be fought on continental Europe again.

The central war memorial on the promenade is to all who fell in The Great War of 1914-18. The so called war to end all wars?

This afternoon as a busy Cheltenham bustled about its business I looked at this memorial with increasing trepidation.