Remembrance Sunday 12 November 2023
Mattins for Remembrance Sunday 10:50
Psalm 121
Isaiah 2.1-4
John 15.12-17
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We come to Remembrance Sunday this year in a yet more turbulent world with conflict in the Middle East now as well as Ukraine, but today we come principally to remember those who served and sacrificed their lives in war. We remember those who died in the first and the second world wars but also other conflicts since then, places forgotten by some but not by those who lost loved ones, like Korea, Suez, the Falklands in which this city was so instrumental and so affected by the ships and personnel of the Royal Navy that were lost. And since then, the first Gulf war in Kuwait, then Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya.
Those who served there and died are remembered at countless services up and down the country today and were remembered yesterday and today at the Cenotaph; for some we have their names and they are inscribed into war memorials, but for others, they are represented by one in particular – the unknown warrior, whose tomb sits prominently inside the main West door of Westminster Abbey, such that even monarchs must go around it. If you don’t know the story of how this came to about, it seems to me to bear re-telling today – because re-telling is what we do at remembrance, to ensure they are honoured properly but also to pass on that understanding to succeeding generations.
The idea of such a burial came from a chaplain at the Front, the Reverend David Railton, who had noticed in 1916 in a back garden at Armentières in Northern France, near the border with Belgium, a grave with a rough cross on which were pencilled the words "An Unknown British Soldier". In August 1920 he wrote to the Dean of Westminster, and the idea was put into action.
The body was chosen from four unknown British servicemen exhumed from different battle areas, including the Somme, and Ypres. The remains were brought to the chapel at Saint Pol on the night of 7th November 1920. The General Officer in charge of troops in France and Flanders, Brigadier General Wyatt, with Colonel Gell, went into the chapel alone, where the bodies on stretchers were covered by Union Flags. They had no idea from which area the bodies had come. Brigadier Wyatt selected one and the two officers placed it in a plain coffin and sealed it. The other three bodies were reburied. The body of the Unknown Warrior may be from any of the three services, Army, Navy, or Air Force, and from any part of the British Isles, Dominions, or Colonies, and represents all those who died who have no other memorial or known grave.
In the morning, Chaplains of the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and Non-Conformist churches held a service in the chapel before the body was escorted to Boulogne to rest overnight. The next day the coffin was placed inside another which had been sent over specially from England made of two-inch thick oak from a tree grown in Hampton Court Palace gardens, and lined with zinc. It was covered with the flag that David Railton had used as an altar cloth during the War (known as the Ypres or Padre's Flag, which now hangs in St George's Chapel). Within the wrought iron bands of this coffin had been placed a 16th century crusader's sword from the Tower of London collection.
The destroyer HMS Verdun transported the coffin to Dover and it was taken by train to Victoria station in London where it rested overnight. On the morning of 11th November 1920, the coffin was placed by the bearer party from the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards on a gun carriage drawn by six black horses of the Royal Horse Artillery. It then began its journey through crowd-lined streets making its first stop in Whitehall where the Cenotaph was unveiled by King George V. The King placed his wreath of red roses and bay leaves on the coffin. His card read “In proud memory of those Warriors who died unknown in the Great War. Unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and behold they live”.
Then the carriage, with the escorting pall bearers (4 Admirals, 4 Field Marshals, 3 Generals and an Air Chief Marshal) followed by the King, members of the Royal Family and ministers of State, made its way to the north door of Westminster Abbey. The coffin was borne to the west end of the nave through the congregation of around 1,000 mourners and a guard of honour of 100 holders of the Victoria Cross from all three services and was lowered into the grave. After the service was over, servicemen kept watch at each corner of the grave while thousands of mourners filed past. On 18th November, the grave was filled in with 100 sandbags of earth from the battlefields of France and then covered by a temporary stone. It was eventually covered by a slab of black Belgian marble from a quarry near Namur. On it is written this inscription, composed by Herbert Ryle, the then Dean of Westminster:
BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY
OF A BRITISH WARRIOR
UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK
BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG
THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND
AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY
11 NOV: 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF
HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
HIS MINISTERS OF STATE
THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES
AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION
THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY
MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT
WAR OF 1914-1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT
MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF
FOR GOD
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE
FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND
THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD
THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE
HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD
HIS HOUSE
Thus, are we reminded of the awesome cause in which he and others died and the immense respect that he, but also all who served, are held for the sacrifices they made, and make for us.
In the gospel reading this morning we heard Jesus talking to his disciples about the importance and priority of love, telling them to love one another as he loved them but also that ‘greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’. But it doesn’t end there. He goes on to talk about the importance of keeping his commandments, referring to that one about love above all else, but also about them being chosen to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last. What does that mean? Well, it seems to me that it must have something to do with remembering properly and giving thanks for all those who laid down their lives for us and for our freedom. And we have done that here this morning in that earlier Act of Remembrance and in the silence.
Remembering is vital but for us, not sufficient. If all we do is remember and mourn those who died, I suggest that we are failing them and failing in our duty to love them, and to love one another. Why? Because if we want their deaths not only to be remembered, but to mean something, we need to remember why they died, in what cause. As stated on that tomb it was about God, King, country, loved ones, justice and freedom. It was in the hope of a better and more peaceful future than had come to them. So, their deaths for those causes, place on us a burden, a burden gladly borne but also a responsibility to re-double our efforts in those causes of freedom, justice, and peace, of safety and the restoration of hope such that others will not need to die in such circumstances as they did. That is why remembrance is important to us – because we are compelled by it to ensure we do everything in our power to avoid having to re-learn the awful lessons of previous conflicts, that others may no longer need to give their lives once again.
This means that we need to look after well and treasure, our democratic freedoms, uphold freedoms for everyone including those with whom we disagree rather than denigrating them. It means we also respect those who offer their lives in military service today. It means working for reconciliation and peace not just here but all over the world, so that we reduce the likelihood of costly conflict – peace-making and peacekeeping. In standing up for peace, justice, freedom, safety, and hope, it must necessarily also mean being prepared to defend them as well. Clearly, I am not a pacifist. Hardly, I first came to Portsmouth 37 years ago to work at what was then called the MOD’s Admiralty Research Establishment on Portsdown Hill as a civilian scientist. War, though always regrettable can be justified and justified within the Christian tradition in certain clear circumstances but that is for another occasion.
The image in the first reading from Isaiah of swords being beaten into ploughshares is a vision of an idealised world where nation no longer lifts up sword against nation or experiences such conflict. We may regard that as impossible this side of heaven, but it is still a standard to which we can seek to aspire and work towards rather than beating everything down to a lowest common denominator.
Standing up for the values we hold dear, is not something to be left only to Prime Ministers, Members of Parliament, or military personnel, it is the responsibility of each and every one of us. It is the mission we receive here from our forebears named on these memorials and those who fought and survived albeit changed. So we give thanks today for all who have given their lives in war, in the causes of justice, peace and freedom, and we pray for those putting their lives on the line today around the world in similar cause, as we pray too for peace. As we give thanks, we remember their words to us as expressed movingly at Kohima: ‘When you go home, tell them of us and say, “For your tomorrow, we gave our today.’Amen.