Remebrance Sunday 2011

[krennon]

Is anyone planning on going up to London next Sunday for the Remebrance Day Parade? I was thinking of getting up there (early obviously) and wondered if anyone else fancied meeting up let me know. I know from camera club members there are some great shots to be had from sorrow to joy and it could be a great day, and there's also more to be seen and photographed in London obviously if the weather is kind there's speakers corner later in the day or just the riverside, St Pauls etc.....So let me know if you fancy a day out in the smoke of the big city 

[picsfor]

Interested, but need to check on engineering works with the railway.
70 miles is a long way on a bus 

[krennon]

be great if you could make it Andrew let me know be cool to do a group meet and maybe set a page up to show the shots from the day 

[irv_b]

I could well be up for this Keith, I should be about at the weekend, let me know later in the week!

[krennon]

Excellent Irv (be nice to see you again as well hopefully the weather will be a bit better than it was in feb  )

[Sandy]

I might be able to make Sunday, will let you know later in the week.

Sandy

[picsfor]

Well, i have to disappoint again.

My local toc is running trains only as far as Ingatestone and then chucking you on a bus to Newbury Park, where you will be put on the underground to Liverpool St.
First train out is 07:30 ish - by the time i get there, i will need my own bouquet and remembrance day.
Even Speakers corner will have run out of things to say 

Worse still, this is apparently going on until Xmas or just after. The are replacing all the overhead wires that run the trains - major project that i know can't be done over night 

However, i will keep checking in for any other excuses to join in a bring a camera party :-)

[Cathus]

I usually attend my local service and take shots when I'm not working. Sadly, I'm working this year so can't go.

[ABERS]

Haven't been up to Whitehall for a couple of years now and would loved to have joined you Keith and Irv, but I'm informed the family's coming round for lunch on Sunday.

Like Cathus I'll visit the local service just around the corner.

P.S. For what it's worth I've always found a good spot for 'people pics' is the back entrance to Horse Guards Parade, just through Admiralty Arch on the Mall, where the marchers congregate prior to the Cenotaph march past. You can't get onto the Horse Guards itself without a pass but there are plenty of be-medalled and grizzled old ex-servicemen filing through onto the parade square itself. You'll need to get there about 9.00.

No problems with taking pictures. Although it's a solemn occasion most marchers are meeting up with old mates and oppo's and a great deal of banter and bonhomie abounds.

It avoids all the crush down Whitehall and around Parliament Square.

Have a good one! 

[Sandy]

I have checked my trains and the first one gets into London about 0830 so this might be too late. I'm walking a lot better with my new knee however standing for an hour in one place could be a problems. I have just brought a new prime lens, its a limited 70mm F2.4 and Pentax of course and it would be great to try it out. I would like to do another Speakers Corner sometime. What were your actual plans for Sunday?

Sandy

[Delamanda]

I'm going to St James's Park for the day with another group, but we're finishing up in The Old Star at 4.00 if anyone's still around and fancies a beer!

[Hinfrance]

I watched Bomber Boys on 5 last evening.

My late father was a WW2 bomber pilot, eventually rising to the rank of Wing Commander. Bomber command had the highest casualty rates of any service during the war, roughly 50%. The tours were 30 missions, which very few survived. My father flew 48 logged raids and a few 'black ops' which were not logged.

He also dropped supplies for the Warsaw uprising (2 sorties), which he said was the hardest thing he had ever done. Both the Germans and the Russians were shooting at them nearly all the way there and back.

Aged 80 he needed a hip replacement, but with a 2 year plus wait he had to mortgage his house to pay for private treatment. At 84 he had what the post mortem doctor called 'an easily operable tumour' that the NHS decided to treat with drugs instead. He died not long afterwards.

Makes you proud to be British, doesn't it?

[ABERS]

A man to be admired Howard. I would think there are very few families not touched by war and the madness of it. In my book anyone that faced, or for that matter is still facing, the horrors and savagery of combat in what ever form is a hero.

Battlefield Grave



Died Of Wounds Received in Action.

Left his widow with three children, my father aged 9, a daughter aged 8 and a baby girl aged 8 months whom he never saw.

Proud to be British, not 'arf!!

[Hinfrance]

Indeed Alan, you're right.

My family was a little more fortunate in WW1. My grandfather was a torpedo officer on a destroyer. Although he served at Jutland he was never sunk. My father's brother (WW2), however, was sunk 3 times. That's minesweepers for you 

[ABERS]

My father's brother (WW2), however, was sunk 3 times. That's minesweepers for you 

So you're related to Del Boy, that would be Uncle Albert would it?