Remembrance Day and Red Poppies

I did my bit for Remembrance Day again. This time I had my friend, Paul, with me. It was nice to have company and we set off across the park in our Great War Canadian uniforms. At the 21st Battalion memorial a few cadets were getting ready, one in a Great War uniform I had helped acquire for the Princess of Wales' Own Regiment. That made three of us in uniform, and I knew my friend David was tending his gallery in uniform and two other uniforms were variously on display. Tim's battalion was showing a sixfold increase over last year. Paul and I greeted the cadet before walking down the scarlet line of RMC cadets getting ready near by. I was pushing my vintage bicycle and sporting the white poppy together with the red and copper ones from years before. Did anyone notice?

The truth is Remembrance Day is very much a red poppy event. Everyone who attends has a story of a parent or grandparent who served. Everyone has a son or a daughter who is serving. Many are veterans themselves. And far from being a time of overt jingoistic patriotism I found it to be a time of thoughtful reflection and regret, of fear and concern, and of hope.

Paul and I stood amongst the civilian contingent, since that's what we really are, and afterwords we met and talked with people. No one was disturbed by my white poppy and those who asked questions of it seemed intrigued. My grouping of poppies opened gates of reflection amongst people who had only met that moment. We all seemed to embrace the white poppy, but in light of the shared remembrance of families which had suffered through the losses of soldiering, we acknowledged the visceral strength of the blood red poppy as a symbol.

Like it or not we do have a national history of war and accompanying death. It is a national experience we must remember. The red poppy certainly speaks to this past, and I think the white speaks for the future. I will be wearing both again next year.

Remembrance Day and White Poppies

Remembrance Day approaches and I prepare for my ritual appearance in the uniform of a Great War Canadian soldier, this year in the 1915 equipment. This is the equipment that I was researching a year ago, and about which I was sending information, measurements, ideas, and mock-ups to Ashok, in India. From this a set of reproduction 1915 leather equipment has been created including the 1915 haversack, an adaptation from the Oliver Pattern haversack from the 1890s.

This is getting pretty arcane. Why do I do this? On the one hand I am certainly wishing to show off something for which I am proud and find delight in its existence. On the other hand, in the context of Remembrance Day, I am also waving the Canadian flag in some sense and representing that which we nationalisticaly admire and honour. Of course, I hope to elicit the usual interest from the other bystanders who will come to me with interesting tales to tell of the great uncles and grandfathers who fought and died on the Western Front. That part I like best, but do I really want to be seen as a flag waver? I would say that my purpose for being there is that I am remembering my grandfather's unlucky friend, Reginald Ellsworth Parrott, who died March 5, 1916, buried by a parapet that collapsed after a German retaliatory bombardment. "Polly" Parrott, as he was called by his mates, is seen standing to the right behind my grandfather. This is a studio photograph taken at the Somme, November 1915, one hundred years ago this month. "The Somme" did not yet have its resonance with such slaughter in a single day on July 1 1916. That was to come. But these young men are not warriors out to kill. They strikes me, rather, as having barely left boyhood behind, and they're out for a lark.

My reasons for being at Remembrance Day are my own, and that is all well and good, but what if I'm seen by others to be supporting something that is counter to my intentions? Anyone on Remembrance Day has to acknowledge that even by being present they are, in some sense, in support of Canada's role within a military context. Words such as "honour", "valour", and "sacrifice" are presumed to be embraced by all of us. Thankfully, the word "God" is not so much used.

On November 5 I participated in a memorial held by a local chapter of a group called Peace Quest 

( http://peacequest.ca/  ) in support of an organization called "The World Remembers". Here is a link for this organization: http://www.theworldremembers.org/

Essentially, their intention is to use Remembrance as a way to commit to positive actions and intent which seek to ensure peace without war and conflict. At this event, with the participation of local artists, especially writers and musicians, we saw war as an affliction which affects combatants and noncombatants alike, and equally on all sides.

I had expressed my interest in participating with one of my Canadian uniforms. I was quickly instructed, prior to this event, that participation would require that a German uniform given an equal ranking and space as the Canadian uniform. I was able to oblige. I resurrected my some-what theatrical German uniform from a few years ago and with the addition of new reproduction belt, leather pouches, and a newly minted German backpack of my own making, I was able to give a good rendition of the German soldier in the early days of the war, compete with picklehaub helmet. This is a bad photograph, but here it is:

I think the stand of these organizations is best symbolized in the white poppy. Historically this symbol started in England when people wished to remember the war and to say that war must never happen again. This was a grand aspiration that also produced the League of Nations and, some might argue, Neville Chamberlain's conciliatory approached the Adolf Hitler. Sadly, the aspirations of all people to a world without strife, or conflict, or bloodshed, seems unattainable these days.

This year, I shall be at the usual Remembrance Day ceremony, in my uniform, wearing my red poppy, and thinking of my grandfather's friend. I will also be wearing a white poppy. To wear a red poppy on Remembrance Day is to embrace the still prevalent line, that our soldiers sacrificed themselves for a greater cause. I find myself thinking, increasingly, that young men and women die in wars because more powerful forces, be they warlords, politicians, patriotic pride, or industrialists, have failed to create a world where peaceful coexistence is possible or even wanted. Soldiers may be led to believe that they are sacrificing themselves, but I think there are, rather, sacrificed by others who stand to gain power and profit from the outcome of the world they are creating.

A hundred years ago millions of young men were slaughtered, and unenlisted civilians died, because kings and emperors were unable to curb their desire for kingdoms and empires. Had every citizen declared "the emperor has no clothes" then a very different history of the world would have unfolded. I would not be spending my time foolishly making reproductions of Canadian leather military equipment from the time my grandfather was a mere teenager. I'm sure he, and Polly Parrott, would be glad to be remembered, but I don't suppose suppose either of them would wish for the world history that has passed in the hundred years since their sorry sacrifice.

Remembering the 21st Battalion, John McCrae, and PPCLI

The commemorations, for which I have been working so much and creating these past blog postings,  have come and gone.

I feel like a bride's mother who has been preparing for a wedding for months, then suddenly the wedding happens and it's all over. Time passes and everything ends. Does the bride's mother think "what was this all about"? Wasn't time supposed to stop in a perpetual and universal moment of recognition?

A group of us in uniform spent the Saturday of May 2 handing out brochures about the official commemoration to take place on the Tuesday. That day, the 5th, we marched in slight confusion with the smart and capable Regiment for whom this whole commemoration was organized. ( Princess of Wales' Own Regiment ). Like a wedding it was gone in the moment without even confetti to sweep up.

But, it was our moment with all its foibles. It was our time to experience thoughts and ideas and to reflect on things which would otherwise have been forgotten. 

One of our group did some busking, singing songs from the 1900s. He later met an old, old, man hobbling up the street with a walker. He told him of the centenary we were commemorating. The old man remembered stories of his father leaving on that very day from Kingston. Tears welled in his eyes. We had done something right.

Similarly, on May 3, I was at a centenary commemoration of the writing of John McCrea's poem "In Flanders Fields". I had presumed it would be an event that all of Canada would attend. I was very much mistaken since the only public there were people with some sort of deep connection to the poet, and otherwise it was a moment of regimental recognition with lots of military columns.

May 8 was the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Friesenberg. My grandfather fought with PPCLI in November 1915, so he was not a part of that battle which tested the regiment to the full. He always had a print the famous painting of the battle in his office, and I now have that painting myself. Yesterday I let my thoughts pass over the idea of that battle in respect for my grandfather's feelings. I don't think that was any less a commemoration for not having grand and perfect fanfares and marching regiments.

A Kingston Great War Commemoration

In preparation for the commemoration we are having in May I'm pulling together uniforms from various sources. I have my own collection and I have two friends, but I am also getting some support from other interested people. The net result has been a lot of ordering of parts and consolidation, plus stitching, ironing, and generally preparing uniforms so they look, well, uniform. This has also meant that I have had to get badges made. More of that in another blog, and photos to follow here later.

All this has created collections gathering at my house, and I can't resist photographing the groupings. Here is a selection:

The pouches, above, have just been soaked and pressed out, and are drying on a heater.

Six sets of bayonets in scabbards become a pattern, the individual purpose lost in a group. The concept of a thousand, or six hundred thousand, suddenly takes form with a shock like a glimpse of infinity. But those are the real numbers, and it doesn't stop there.

         

This picture above shows the 21st Battalion for whom this quest to provide uniforms is driven. This has to be about a thousand men right here.

For this commemoration we're observing the departure in May 1915. Since this predates the development of the steel helmet we will all be wearing stiff Service Dress Caps. Here's the collection:

In order to get these ready I got into some more badge casting. Here's a selection for what I now have for sale in my Great War reproductions blog.

http://greatwarreproductions.blogspot.ca

April...

I've just done a new round of nurses' buckles which makes for another large grouping.

Canadian Great War Nurse's Uniforms

This is a brief update on the plan for the commemoration in May. 

The quest for resources to acquire infantry uniforms is moving well but I must make ground on the nurses' uniforms. I think I have found a supplier but will need money equal to the infantry uniforms. If any one wishes to sponsor parts of Canadian Great War nursing uniforms to this worthy cause please contact me. 

This is what we hope to purchase, but harder to find is the correct belt. I'm in the market to buy one if anyone has a Canadian nurse's belt for sale. Failing that I'm currently borrowing a buckle and will be reproducing it. You can follow this effort in my blog on Great War artifacts.

http://greatwarartifacts.blogspot.ca/2014_10_01_archive.html

Update: March 2015. Here's the reproduction. These can be bought through my reproductions blog.

http://greatwarreproductions.blogspot.ca/

Here's a photo taken on May 5, 2015 at the commemoration of the departure of the 21st Battalion and the Queen's University Stationary Hospital Corps. All the uniforms came together in the last week, including the exquisite work done on the nurse's dress uniform, for which I was honoured to be able to make the buckle.