Reader shares thoughts on Remembrance Day commemorations in Grantham

A Grantham Journal reader shares his thoughts on how the town paid respect to the fallen on Remembrance Day last Sunday (November 12).

Once more we have joined together in Remembrance across the country. Remembering those we have lost on a personal level and passing on the tales of family members past, to a new generation, who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the British way of life. Throughout my life I have attended these parades and enjoyed the marching music, bowed my head in sombre prayer for the fallen and remembered those who fell so I could live in freedom.

I remember that when I was little, before the days that a lady from Broad Street became leader of our nation, I wondered why my paternal grandfather did not march and show off the shiny medals that all the other granddads and some dads, back then, proudly displayed from the Second World War. I was sure that he had been there as my grandmother used to tell us stories of the bombing and the fear of waiting for the Germans to land on the beaches.

So, I asked him what he did in the War. He replied in a slightly awkward way that he had not been allowed to fight as he was a mining engineer and was required on the Home Front to keep the coal flowing for the factories and the minerals mined for the tanks. He told me that after his day job he donned the uniform of an ARP warden and as a member of the Civil Defense Service and protected people from the air attack through the night. Although he would bow his head and pray for fallen friends and family, I never saw him marching in the parade, I think he must have felt he had not earned a place.

I jump forward to my 40’s and although Grantham born and bred, I worked in London and lived in Orpington. Orpington had a very special Remembrance Day. It had the usual parade organised by the British Legion to the church and a suitable non-denominational service and as custodian of the Canadian war graves a guard was mounted in the cemetery over the honoured dead. After the church service prayers were said and the last post sounded over the graveyard. But what made it special was Ivy Mildred Croughton Millichamp. A name many of you will have never heard of in the history of the Second World War. At 16.54 hours, on March 27, 1945 Ivy went into the kitchen to boil the kettle for a cup of afternoon tea. Sadly, for poor Ivy the 1,115th and final V2 to land in the country exploded nearby making Ivy the 60,595th and last civilian killed in Britain by enemy action in the Second World War. Her husband who was waiting for the tea in the front room survived the attack. Every year the congregation, the Scouts and Guides and others gather at Ivy’s grave, found at All Saints, Orpington, and think of the forgotten others who lost their life to the enemy or served the country in its time of need without a military uniform.

I watched our parade in Grantham this year and as deserved and expected the Military played a huge part. But I have noticed over the years, as we turn more to the fallen from our modern conflicts, that many of the organisations that have served the country just as much and shed their blood to preserve our freedom are relegated to the annals of old history books. Outside the Guildhall the silhouettes of soldiers stand guard with a sole member of the Land Army. Where are the others? The ambulance workers, police officers, fire and rescue personnel, customs officers, members of the lifeboat service, Bevin boys, Canary Girls, Civil Defense Service, Merchant Navy, rail workers and the countless others that stood tall in the hour of need, many of whom lost their life in service.

Where are their banners and flags in the November winds. Even organisations who still march outside the military remit yet supported the county in both wars such as the Guides and Scouts have mostly forgotten rolls and are hidden away at the back. Remember a soldier cannot fight without ammunition, food, technology, equipment and home support. Although it is right that the military should take centre stage, after all they do have the best marching bands, we are all in danger of not seeing the wood for the trees. The words of remembrance are:

“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we shall remember them”

Yet we are slowly forgetting those without anyone to shout for them, we are forgetting our Ivy Millichamp’s and turning a national day of Remembrance into just another date in the military calendar. Yes, it is important we support our military on this important day, but we should also spare a prayer to our Ivy’s and remember those whose voice fades to the years.

Alexander Walton

Hobart Road, Grantham