REMEMBRANCE DAY

Every year a memorial service is held at the British cemetery in Nederweert on the Saturday closest to 11 of November. This commemoration has been organized since 1981 by the Legion of Veterans and from 2022 by the  Wargraves Foundation Nederweert War Cemetery.

For more information about the program, please select the following link.

On 11 November, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries commemorate on this day the fallen of World War I, World War II and all wars and armed conflicts.

This day goes back to the day of November 11, 1918, when at 11 AM the arms fell silent, the so-called armistice agreement, the First World War “the Great War” came to an end and is now known as Remembrance Day.

The commemoration takes place on November 11, but the actual solemn commemoration takes place on the Sunday closest to that date, that day is called Remembrance Sunday . On Sundays at 11:00 am, two minutes of silence are observed all over the country and wreaths are laid. The national commemoration takes place at the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London.

Painting depicting the signing of the armistice in the train carriage on 11-11-1918.

Wreath laying and parade at the Cenotaph in London during Remembrance Sunday.

The origin of this day lies in Armistice Day, which was instituted in Great Britain on November 11, 1919, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the peace agreement that ended the First World War. In response to a proposal from a politician, King George V asked the country to observe a two-minute silence in memory of the victims of the war. There after, this moment of silence (2min) became the focus of the annual Armistice Day until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. It was decided that no general celebration would be held on November 11 of that year.

Instead, the Sunday closest to November 11 was chosen during the war.

First Armistice at 11am in 1919 a year later in 1920 in Westminster Abby the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was placed.

After the Second World War, the British government, wanting to honor the participants in both world wars, officially replaced the Armistice Day with that new Sunday, which became known as Remembrance Sunday. In 1956 the date was set on the second Sunday of the month.

The Poppy

People often wear a poppy in these days. The wreaths are also made of red plastic poppies, i.e. poppies, in addition you see many wooden crosses. These are also often provided with a red poppy on which a personal message is written as a sign of commemoration. By wearing a 'poppy', or poppy, the British commemorate the victims of the First and Second World War, but also of all conflicts since that time.

American, British and Canadian Poppies

Various types of Celtic, Variation, Poppy with cross, Crescent Moon, Secular, Sikh Khanda, Star of David.

The symbolism of the poppy began with a poem written by the surgeon John McCrae who was struck during the First World War by the sight of the red flowers growing on a devastated battlefield.

Thanks to her blood-red leaves and black cross-shaped core, she is an appropriate symbol for all fallen soldiers.

The symbol comes from the idea that the plant grew in places where someone had been killed: the flower would have turned the victim's blood into that beautiful red color. It has long been thought that this is why so many poppies could be found on battlefields. However, this is because the flower's seeds do not germinate until they are exposed to light.

The ground around the trenches of the First World War (1914-1918), which had been churned up as a result of fighting and bombing, provided an ideal breeding ground.

The British Cemetery

The standard cemetery of over 40 graves contains a Cross of Sacrifice designed by architect Reginald Blomfield. This cross was designed to imitate medieval crosses found in graveyards in England, with proportions more common on the Celtic cross. The cross is normally a freestanding four-point limestone Latin cross, mounted on an octagonal base and ranging in height from 14 to 32 feet (4.3 to 9.8 m). A bronze longsword, blade down, is embedded on the face of the cross. This cross represents the faith of the majority of the dead and the sword represents the military nature of the cemetery, intended to connect British soldiers with the Christian concept of self-sacrifice.

Cemeteries with more than 1000 graves usually have a memorial stone "The Stone of Remembrance" designed by Edwin Lutyens. Simple language had to be used so that everyone could understand the meaning regardless of education level. This is about equality not only for the dead but also for the bereaved.

To use the right words, the Imperial War Graves Commission turned to the writer Rudyard Kipling, whose own son was killed at the front and was never identified.

He chose a short phrase from the Bible 'Their Name Liveth For Evermore' for the graves for unidentified 'A Soldier of the Great War' for World War II victims  'A Soldier of the 1939-1945 War'  and followed at the bottom 'Known to God'.

The concept of the Stone of Remembrance was developed to commemorate none of all religions respectively. Unlike the Cross of Sacrifice, the design for the stone has deliberately avoided "shapes associated with particular religions". The geometry of the structure was based on studies of the Parthenon. Each stone is 12 feet (3.5 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) high. The shape of the stone has been compared to that of a sarcophagus and an altar. The function is designed according to the principle of entasis. The subtle curves in the design, if extended, would form a sphere 1,801 feet 8 inches (549.15 m) in diameter.

The tombstones

Most headstones are made from Portland stone sourced from England's south coast "Jurassic Coast" the same material used to build Buickinham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral. In Scotland and Canada, granite stones are often used

 

  1. The Prominent Circle at the top shows a National Emblem or Regimental Emblem. Regiments were given input on how their decal was presented, but emphasis was placed on the simplicity of the design in order to be as practical as possible.
  2. Below the emblem are the data, which usually consists of registration number, rank, name, unit, date of death and any military decoration. The rank mentioned is the rank at the time of death, often people were temporarily promoted in the field.
  3. Many tombstones contain an icon to represent the religious conviction, the family could possibly omit this. Soldiers of other religious beliefs outside of Christianity could choose their own symbol, with Muslims buried towards the East. Some tombstones of non-European countries in some cases have an inscription engraved in their native language.
  4. Some family members were unhappy with the policy prohibiting repatriation of remains. To accommodate them, family members could post a personal message. This was often encouraged to choose lines from a prayer text. More personal were also allowed, however the counts commission had a policy for this with a maximum of 66 letters at a cost of 3.5 cents per letter, this was later changed to a voluntary contribution as many people could not afford this. The Canadian and Australian governments had decided from the outset not to impose any form of compensation for the epitaph. New Zealand had made the choice not to be able to place any inscriptions at all.
  5. Plants had to be suitable for foreign soil with dark evergreen shrubs being best suited. Wherever possible yew trees were planted to make it look more like a British graveyard. And it was advised to level the ground instead of the individual hills.