What emotional response?
Remembrance was not always straightforward - especially for the friends and families of the fallen. Many found it difficult to deal with their loss. Some refused to believe their loved ones were truly gone. Spiritualism became a common source of comfort for many. For other families, there was the very real financial strain of living with loss.
Remembrance Day was not always universally supported. Proceedings were interrupted, sometimes for political motives, sometimes by veterans themselves. In 1925, the Rev Riches Lowe of Providence Church, Uxbridge, condemned the age's 'mad rush for pleasure' and called on the town to use the 11 November to focus on 'remembrance and repentance'.
"Five hundred British boys lie sleeping in that small acre of silence, and among them is my own laddie."
Sir Harry Lauder
A century after the First World War, the inscriptions on some memorials may no longer resonate. Do phrases such as 'God, King and Country' or 'The glorious dead' evoke the same emotions in us as they did in those who fought in that conflict?
Lest we forget