Remembrance Day ……. November 2020

This year there will be many things done differently.

And one of those will be the way we approach Remembrance Day, which traditionally is a moment when people from across the country gather together at war memorials to commemorate those that took part in the country’s conflicts.

The large gatherings of the young, not so young and the elderly will be on hold for better days, and in their place there will be smaller ceremonies.

Many will take advantage of the new technology that has come to be the way we have engaged with family, friends, and work colleagues, since the first lockdown.

And as part of that new approach David Harrop is hosting a new Facebook site, called, David Harrop Manchester Postal Museum presents remembrance 2020.*

Now, many will know David from his vast collection of memorabilia from the two world wars, some of which is on display at his permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.

And like the exhibition, the new site will be a place for David to post items from his collection leading up to Remembrance Day.

Some will be of the men who went off to fight, while others will focus on the lives of those who stayed behind, to work in the factories, and keep essential services running, and the children who often lost out on their schooling as schools became temporary hospitals.

The material will include photographs, picture postcards, letters, as well official correspondence and the medals that each told a story.

So, I shall close with the words of Abraham Lincoln speaking to the US Congress in 1862 on the eve of the Civil War, reflecting that “the dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.”

Looking at David’s new site I think he has risen to that occasion.

Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop.

*David Harrop Manchester postal museum presents remembrance 2020, https://www.facebook.com/101659725057513/posts/101660148390804/?substory_index=0&sfnsn=scwspmo