On Sunday we dedicate our new Fusilier memorial at the National Arboretum. I thought I would write something which you may find useful to contemplate as we approach the day. OUR FUSILIERS. We do not mention this Fusilier by name and we never will. We do not mention his rank or his battalion. We do not say where he was born, or precisely how and when he died. We do not say where in Blighty he had made his home or when he left it to defend us abroad We do not give his age or his circumstances – whether he was from the city, town or country, what occupation he left to become a soldier; what religion, if he had a religion; if he was married or single. We do not name those who loved him or whom he loved. If he had children we do not say who they are. His family is lost to us as he was lost to them. You will never know of whom I write. Yet he has always been among those whom we have honoured. We know that he was following an illustrious line. He is all of them. And he is one of us. The tide of events since he first enlisted has been so dramatic, so vast and all-consuming; a world has been created beyond the reach of his imagination. He may have been one of those who believed that war would be an adventure too grand to miss. He may have felt that he would never live down the shame of not going. But the chances are he went for no other reason than that he believed it was his duty - the duty he owed his country and his King or Queen Because war is a mad, brutal, awful struggle, distinguished more often than not by military and political incompetence; because the waste of human life is so terrible that some say victory is scarcely discernible from defeat; we could be excused for thinking that our dead Fusilier died in vain. But, in honoring our war dead, as we always have and as we do today, we declare that this is not true. For out of conflict comes a lesson which transcends the horror and tragedy and the inexcusable folly. It is a lesson about ordinary people – and the lesson is that they are not ordinary. On all sides they are the heroes of our wars; not the generals and the politicians but the soldiers and sailors and nurses – those who teach us to endure hardship, to show courage, to be bold as well as resilient, to believe in ourselves, to stick together. The Fusilier we honor today is one of those who by his deeds proves that real nobility and grandeur belong not to empires and nations but to the people on whom they, in the last resort, always depend. This is surely at the heart of the story, the Fusilier legend which emerges from our battles It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of comradeship and the demands of necessity. This Fusilier is not remembered here to glorify war over peace; or to assert a soldiers character above a civilians; or one race or one nation or one religion above another; or men above women; or the war in which he fought and died above any other war; or of one generation above any that has been or will come later. This tribute to him honours the memory of all those men and women who laid down their lives for our Country. His grave is a reminder of what we have lost in war and what we have gained. Regimentally we lost many thousand lives and with them all their love of this country and all their hope and energy. We have gained a legend: a story of bravery and sacrifice and, with it, a deeper faith in ourselves and our comrades, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a part of the Regimental family of Fusiliers. It is not too much to hope, therefore, that this unknown Fusilier might continue to serve his country - he might enshrine a nations love of peace and remind us that in the sacrifice of the men and women whose names are recorded in our Regimental history there is faith enough for all of us. Captain Joe Eastwood BEM CQSW.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 20:06:20 +0000
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