Today, as we watch the commemoration of the start of world war one, we are all staggered and humbled by the huge losses, and the absolute bravery of the men and women who fought, transported and nursed during the conflict.


My grandfather, and two great uncles fought during the war for over two years, and miraculously survived although wounded, and gassed. Their sister drove an ambulance transporting the wounded.


My grandfather never spoke of the horrors he witnessed. A quiet, gentle man, you would never have known the trauma and suffering he went through. His last words on his death bed, however, were to say to my father one thing...that he wished he hadnt killed so many germans. 

Because they were like him. Ordinary folk.And here lies the dilemma in the commemoration process. If the soldiers who fought and survived could speak today, they would not want this fuss. They would want one thing- the lessons from the waste of life to have been learned. Thats all. That the political classes that created the great war were a different breed in todays world. That they stood for peace.

That they stood up to tyranny, the random killing of innocents, and that they didnt let squabbles develop into the deaths of ordinary people, who had no arguement with each other .


The tribute to the tortured souls who returned and suffered in silence, never speaking of the horrors because they couldnt, and because they knew no one could understand-the tribute to those who died in the mud and squalor - should be that those in positions of power should have realised the futility and waste of war, and have used the strength of the UN to prevent innocent deaths and unchallenged violence.


Judging by the current world conflicts, particularly Gaza and Syria, and the subdued government responses to innocent deaths by many nations, including ours, they havnt.


Were my Grandfather alive, I think he would say to those politicians making speeches, stop this commemoration, go back to your offices, and work out a way to stop innocents in todays war zones dying. Stop the fighting...the shelling of schools. Stand up for what we thought ..what we were told...we were fighting for.

Richard Farrell-Adams
St Peters
Worcester