I AM sure that many, like me, are greatly moved and saddened to watch the poppy petals that gently float down from the roof of the Albert Hall at the end of the annual Festival of Remembrance in November; such a poignant and powerful reminder of the sacrifice of so many brave soldiers in the service of our country.

This Friday, July 1, poppy petals will once again be used in an act of commemoration, but this time near the small village of La Boiselle in France.

Very early in the morning, visitors from many countries will be gathering around the Lochnagar Crater, the largest man-made crater of the First World War, to mark the start of the Battle of the Somme.  

This year will hold special significance as it will be exactly 100 years since that fateful morning when at 7.28am the British forces detonated the explosives they had laid behind the German lines.

It was the start of a battle which was to last six months, with more than one million men wounded or killed, making it one of the worst conflicts in human history.

We must not forget, however, the suffering of those wives and families who were left at home, daily dreading the arrival of a telegram.

Having a grandmother who lost a brother later in the war, I know how deeply his death affected her and his young widow. 

As I write this column, the world is grieving for the 49 young partygoers who have been killed in a night club in Orlando.

The papers and our television screens are filled with the anguish of the victims’ families and the tide of sorrow and sympathy that has flowed around the world. 

War and hatred which turn to violence are a stain on humanity.

The vast open wound in the landscape made by the crater at Lochnagar symbolises the pain of all those grieving people whose lives have been devastated by man’s inhumanity to man.  

So let us all, like those who will be linking hands around the crater on Friday , join with our brothers and sisters around the world to work and pray together for peace, fellowship and reconciliation.

GILL KEEN
St Peter’s Church
Stratton