Saturday, July 18, 2009

Old Veterans

Sad to note the death of Henry Allingham, world's oldest man and one of the few surviving veterans of World War 1. Many fine words will be written about him.

My thought today was this. As he grew up as a child he probably heard one or two people remark that Waterloo (only 81 years before he was born) was no longer commemorated the way it used to be. He was born nearer to 1815 than any child born this millennium was to the end of The Great War. Allingham may have met someone born in the eighteenth century.

When should we stop commemorating things? No dig at anyone. Just a question.

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