With the current blog tipping over 100,000 hits, and the combination with the old one tipping over 400,000, I’m reposting the top five blogs in terms of hits.
This came in at number two. It was picked up and reposted by the Royal British Legion, so had a high hit rate as a result. It was posted on 8 November 2011.
My visit to Kohima was one of the most moving moments of my life. The simple poem says it all..
When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say....
Over the last three weeks, I have had the immense privilege of working with some of the most wonderful people in the world. I'm sure there will be more stories to follow, but this seems appropriate with Remembrance Day around the corner.
During my time in Nagaland, an extreme North-East State in India, I was able to drive to Kohima. Here there is one of the best kept war cemeteries I have seen, a memorial to all those who gave their lives in what was the turning point in the Indian war against the Japanese in 1944. Amongst the thousands of graves, each one recording a British or Indian soldier, usually in their early twenties, there is a poem, called the Kohima Epitaph, and copied by many other war memorials. This is what it says:When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.
Simple and poignant. Still as true today. Let's not forget.
