Leonard Cheshire speech to British Legion Cambridge
Title
Leonard Cheshire speech to British Legion Cambridge
Description
Notes that he took part in annual general meeting of the organisation and makes some comment on their progress. States that he would loke to talk not just about the Legion but also associations, clubs, institutions and ceremonies that were born out either of the two world wars. Give some historical background to the war and what happened domestically. Continues with value of training on conduct particularly with reference to prisoners of war. Covers lesson learned. Goes on to talk of the role and purpose of the Legion and other organisations to pass on what they had learned. Submitted with caption 'Leonard Cheshire speeches on the subject of wartime spirit. He reminisces about his wartime service.
Side 1 Part 1 RAF Reserves Club 24.11.75
Side 1 Part 2 Royal British Legion, Cambridge 26.11.75'.
Side 1 Part 1 RAF Reserves Club 24.11.75
Side 1 Part 2 Royal British Legion, Cambridge 26.11.75'.
Creator
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Type
Format
Audio recording 00:15:52
Publisher
Rights
This content is property of the Leonard Cheshire Archive which has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it. Please note that it was digitised by a third-party which used technical specifications that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre.
Identifier
SCheshireGL72021v20017-0002, SCheshireGL72021v20017-0002-Transcript
Transcription
Leonard Cheshire Resonate Project
File title: Side 2 Part 1 British Legion
Duration: 14 minutes, 24 seconds
Transcription date: 26/08/2020
Archive number: AV-S 512
Start of Transcription:
00:00 Group Captain Leonard Cheshire: The next is the British Legion at Cambridge on Wednesday, November 26th.
00:08: GLC: Mr President, Colonel Hurrell, ladies and gentlemen. Well on my side I would like to say that it’s a great pleasure and a great privilege to be your guest this evening and to be invited to speak to you for a little while. I'll be most interested to hear and read in the report of the progress that’s been made over this last year, of the way that you've increased your subscriptions and so on and developed your work. And I assure you that it's a great pleasure being part of your annual general meeting. I attend quite a lot of meetings in connection with my own homes and other organisations, they don't usually go quite so smoothly as this one has gone. I'm not used to Chairman getting up and saying any comments, any objections, I'm hearing none at all but I expect it's a bit different in committee and probably out of deference to your guests the work’s been done before you come together. I tonight would like to talk not about the service side of the Legion, in part that has been covered, but for another part I feel that the other side of the Legion’s role, particularly at this time in history, is perhaps the most important. And every speaker so far has referred to it, in one way or another, and I know that at least one other speaker this evening is going to do so himself in his own way. And in saying this, I would like to feel that I’m talking not just about the British Legion but about all associations, clubs, institutions and ceremonies that were born out of either the First or the Second World War and have as their objective, in one way or another, the perpetuation of the comradeship, the spirit and the commitment and everything else that those who lived through those two Wars knew. And I would like to, if you’ll forgive me, go back to the beginnings of the Legion and these other associations. By that I mean the World Wars. And as regards the Second World War I would like to start by saying something which, I suppose we’ve always known, perhaps we don't think about so much today but I… but which I think is still relevant if we understand what lies behind it. The Second World War need really never have been fought. If we as a nation had faced up to the reality of the threat posed by Hitler in the middle ‘30s, we could have stopped him. Because at all stages, until after the betrayal of Czechoslovakia which was the heart of Europe, militarily speaking, we held the strength, we the allies not we just as one country, Hitler did not and his generals told him that what he was trying to do was militarily impossible. They were poised to dethrone him if we stood firm at Munich, but Hitler said, ‘Don't worry, they won’t fight’, and we didn't. The result was that we were forced to fight and in the end, as you know, lost something like 55 million lives throughout both sides participating in the War because we would not face up to reality, we would not grasp the metal, unpleasant though it was, we were preoccupied with what was happening domestically. What was happening the other side of the channel was too far afield. And as for the War itself, I know that each of us holds our own individual memories and they will differ. I think however we will agree that we knew what it was when a country, a nation, is united in a common purpose against a common danger and knows that it has got to win. Knows that there is no question of failing or losing. We saw what unity there was within the nation, how we came to share the lives of other people, understand them and realise what we had in common with people whom otherwise perhaps we would never have met. And on an individual basis, individual level, how much we learnt. In the first place we learnt the benefits of discipline. We discovered how unpleasant, though we may have felt it to be at the beginning, how when we were up against it, discipline came to our help. How many... how many letters I’ve read from ex-servicemen who complained bitterly about bull when they were on the parade ground and yet declare that when they were in a POW camp, it was that that saved them. We learnt from the example of others. We learnt how essential it was to fully know our trade, to be fully professional. We learnt what a tiny cog we are in a big machine and how if there is occasionally what appears to be individual achievement, some who receive more of the likes than others, yet those very people know that they were part of a team and that it was a team that made it possible to achieve whatever had been achieved. But also we learnt what it is to be part of a tradition, to benefit from what’s been done by others that have gone before us, generations ago. We learnt that what seems so difficult from afar becomes easy when you’re there. I remember looking forward to... when I joined my first squadron, wondering how on earth I would manage and yet when one got there somehow one was carried along in the stream. Carried along in the stream not just of those with us but those who garn before. And now we, members of the Legion or whatever association we may belong to, we have the job of carrying that stream forward into today and into tomorrow. And the question is, ‘Are we really doing it?’ I don't think, if we're honest, that the public at large, the young public, the young generation, understands what the various service organisations are. And also, I don't really think that most service organisations have yet adapted themselves to the needs of today. Because although there were only two World Wars, and both those World Wars were fought in the hope of establishing peace that would last, that was the ideal I think that kept everybody going, down at heart. Those two generations don’t have a prerogative of working for peace, every generation has to work for peace and has done ever since man first emerged to become an intelligent being on this earth. Every generation has made its contribution in its own way according to the circumstances of the time. And the same holds good for today. The threat today may not be what it was in the 1930s, it isn’t. But it would be naive to think that in the world in which we live, given the state of human nature, but there is no possibility of violent confrontation, of course there is and our mistake was, in the ‘30s, we were inward looking. We didn’t identify ourselves enough with the rest of the world and our guard was down. We gave the impression that no matter what was at stake we wouldn't fight. So in a sense, Hitler was entitled to think that we wouldn’t. And whatever the circumstances of today, we still can’t afford to let our guard down. We must still make it clear that whilst our purpose is peace and peaceful negotiation, we are committed in the- should there ever be aggression again, to stand up and attempt to stop it, the world should know that. But the world should know even more that we as a nation are committed to establishing peace and justice and freedom in the world. But I wonder if the world does know that of us, I doubt it. And I see in the Legion another ex-service associations of so many different kinds and the ceremonies, by which I mean Remembrance Day, a means of linking up the past with the present and projecting it into the future. I think there should be a meaningful dialogue between the Legion and the new generation and you in Cambridge, it seems to me, are uniquely situated to do that because this is a University town. How it can be achieved I don’t know, I don’t think anybody knows. But I think that we should make it our prime purpose to identify ourselves with today's generation, to pass on on the one hand what we have learnt, not by our achievements but by our association with others who are no longer here today. And on the other hand to learn from the new generation, to make it one stream carrying on into the future. I think in particular, as I know the Legion every year agrees should be done, I think in particular that the two minute silence should be brought back and I think that we should work for it. My reason for saying that is that before the War, on the 11th of November at 11 o'clock in the morning for two minutes, everything stopped. I was young then and I don't think I understood what it was all about. But somehow I knew that I was participating in something greater than myself, something meaningful. And I think that if we as a nation could go back to the 11th of November, 11 o'clock in the morning and for those two minutes stop and remember on the one hand what we owe to those who gone before us, think perhaps of the mistakes that have been made and learn from them and then consider what, both as individuals and as a nation, we can do for today's world because there will never be peace unless we go out and do what we can to remove the causes of violence and confrontation. The principle causes of war are on the one hand ill-intentioned by some aggressor, on the other injustice. Injustice today is probably the greatest threat to the future security of the world. By injustice I mean the great injustices of the disparity between the very poor of the world and the better off. There are other injustices too and these we can do something about. And so I feel that above all the British Legion, covering as it does the whole country and every branch of all the services, should see as its primary role today to pass on, as it received, the spirit that inspired those who fought through the two World Wars and make it one and the same with the spirit of today's generation that in its own way is fighting the same struggle. And so Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your kindness in having let me stand up and join you and speak to you for these few moments. Thank you very much.
13:31: Speech ends.
13:32: [Applause]
14:14: End of recording.
End of Transcription.
File title: Side 2 Part 1 British Legion
Duration: 14 minutes, 24 seconds
Transcription date: 26/08/2020
Archive number: AV-S 512
Start of Transcription:
00:00 Group Captain Leonard Cheshire: The next is the British Legion at Cambridge on Wednesday, November 26th.
00:08: GLC: Mr President, Colonel Hurrell, ladies and gentlemen. Well on my side I would like to say that it’s a great pleasure and a great privilege to be your guest this evening and to be invited to speak to you for a little while. I'll be most interested to hear and read in the report of the progress that’s been made over this last year, of the way that you've increased your subscriptions and so on and developed your work. And I assure you that it's a great pleasure being part of your annual general meeting. I attend quite a lot of meetings in connection with my own homes and other organisations, they don't usually go quite so smoothly as this one has gone. I'm not used to Chairman getting up and saying any comments, any objections, I'm hearing none at all but I expect it's a bit different in committee and probably out of deference to your guests the work’s been done before you come together. I tonight would like to talk not about the service side of the Legion, in part that has been covered, but for another part I feel that the other side of the Legion’s role, particularly at this time in history, is perhaps the most important. And every speaker so far has referred to it, in one way or another, and I know that at least one other speaker this evening is going to do so himself in his own way. And in saying this, I would like to feel that I’m talking not just about the British Legion but about all associations, clubs, institutions and ceremonies that were born out of either the First or the Second World War and have as their objective, in one way or another, the perpetuation of the comradeship, the spirit and the commitment and everything else that those who lived through those two Wars knew. And I would like to, if you’ll forgive me, go back to the beginnings of the Legion and these other associations. By that I mean the World Wars. And as regards the Second World War I would like to start by saying something which, I suppose we’ve always known, perhaps we don't think about so much today but I… but which I think is still relevant if we understand what lies behind it. The Second World War need really never have been fought. If we as a nation had faced up to the reality of the threat posed by Hitler in the middle ‘30s, we could have stopped him. Because at all stages, until after the betrayal of Czechoslovakia which was the heart of Europe, militarily speaking, we held the strength, we the allies not we just as one country, Hitler did not and his generals told him that what he was trying to do was militarily impossible. They were poised to dethrone him if we stood firm at Munich, but Hitler said, ‘Don't worry, they won’t fight’, and we didn't. The result was that we were forced to fight and in the end, as you know, lost something like 55 million lives throughout both sides participating in the War because we would not face up to reality, we would not grasp the metal, unpleasant though it was, we were preoccupied with what was happening domestically. What was happening the other side of the channel was too far afield. And as for the War itself, I know that each of us holds our own individual memories and they will differ. I think however we will agree that we knew what it was when a country, a nation, is united in a common purpose against a common danger and knows that it has got to win. Knows that there is no question of failing or losing. We saw what unity there was within the nation, how we came to share the lives of other people, understand them and realise what we had in common with people whom otherwise perhaps we would never have met. And on an individual basis, individual level, how much we learnt. In the first place we learnt the benefits of discipline. We discovered how unpleasant, though we may have felt it to be at the beginning, how when we were up against it, discipline came to our help. How many... how many letters I’ve read from ex-servicemen who complained bitterly about bull when they were on the parade ground and yet declare that when they were in a POW camp, it was that that saved them. We learnt from the example of others. We learnt how essential it was to fully know our trade, to be fully professional. We learnt what a tiny cog we are in a big machine and how if there is occasionally what appears to be individual achievement, some who receive more of the likes than others, yet those very people know that they were part of a team and that it was a team that made it possible to achieve whatever had been achieved. But also we learnt what it is to be part of a tradition, to benefit from what’s been done by others that have gone before us, generations ago. We learnt that what seems so difficult from afar becomes easy when you’re there. I remember looking forward to... when I joined my first squadron, wondering how on earth I would manage and yet when one got there somehow one was carried along in the stream. Carried along in the stream not just of those with us but those who garn before. And now we, members of the Legion or whatever association we may belong to, we have the job of carrying that stream forward into today and into tomorrow. And the question is, ‘Are we really doing it?’ I don't think, if we're honest, that the public at large, the young public, the young generation, understands what the various service organisations are. And also, I don't really think that most service organisations have yet adapted themselves to the needs of today. Because although there were only two World Wars, and both those World Wars were fought in the hope of establishing peace that would last, that was the ideal I think that kept everybody going, down at heart. Those two generations don’t have a prerogative of working for peace, every generation has to work for peace and has done ever since man first emerged to become an intelligent being on this earth. Every generation has made its contribution in its own way according to the circumstances of the time. And the same holds good for today. The threat today may not be what it was in the 1930s, it isn’t. But it would be naive to think that in the world in which we live, given the state of human nature, but there is no possibility of violent confrontation, of course there is and our mistake was, in the ‘30s, we were inward looking. We didn’t identify ourselves enough with the rest of the world and our guard was down. We gave the impression that no matter what was at stake we wouldn't fight. So in a sense, Hitler was entitled to think that we wouldn’t. And whatever the circumstances of today, we still can’t afford to let our guard down. We must still make it clear that whilst our purpose is peace and peaceful negotiation, we are committed in the- should there ever be aggression again, to stand up and attempt to stop it, the world should know that. But the world should know even more that we as a nation are committed to establishing peace and justice and freedom in the world. But I wonder if the world does know that of us, I doubt it. And I see in the Legion another ex-service associations of so many different kinds and the ceremonies, by which I mean Remembrance Day, a means of linking up the past with the present and projecting it into the future. I think there should be a meaningful dialogue between the Legion and the new generation and you in Cambridge, it seems to me, are uniquely situated to do that because this is a University town. How it can be achieved I don’t know, I don’t think anybody knows. But I think that we should make it our prime purpose to identify ourselves with today's generation, to pass on on the one hand what we have learnt, not by our achievements but by our association with others who are no longer here today. And on the other hand to learn from the new generation, to make it one stream carrying on into the future. I think in particular, as I know the Legion every year agrees should be done, I think in particular that the two minute silence should be brought back and I think that we should work for it. My reason for saying that is that before the War, on the 11th of November at 11 o'clock in the morning for two minutes, everything stopped. I was young then and I don't think I understood what it was all about. But somehow I knew that I was participating in something greater than myself, something meaningful. And I think that if we as a nation could go back to the 11th of November, 11 o'clock in the morning and for those two minutes stop and remember on the one hand what we owe to those who gone before us, think perhaps of the mistakes that have been made and learn from them and then consider what, both as individuals and as a nation, we can do for today's world because there will never be peace unless we go out and do what we can to remove the causes of violence and confrontation. The principle causes of war are on the one hand ill-intentioned by some aggressor, on the other injustice. Injustice today is probably the greatest threat to the future security of the world. By injustice I mean the great injustices of the disparity between the very poor of the world and the better off. There are other injustices too and these we can do something about. And so I feel that above all the British Legion, covering as it does the whole country and every branch of all the services, should see as its primary role today to pass on, as it received, the spirit that inspired those who fought through the two World Wars and make it one and the same with the spirit of today's generation that in its own way is fighting the same struggle. And so Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your kindness in having let me stand up and join you and speak to you for these few moments. Thank you very much.
13:31: Speech ends.
13:32: [Applause]
14:14: End of recording.
End of Transcription.
Collection
Citation
G L Cheshire, “Leonard Cheshire speech to British Legion Cambridge,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed February 14, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/40174.