Remembrance Sunday - Leonard Cheshire
Title
Remembrance Sunday - Leonard Cheshire
Description
Remembrance Sunday. Talk by Leonard Cheshire on the meaning of Remembrance Sunday. Short speech about war and remembrance, the dead. Explains why national act of remembrance was instigated. and talks about the unknown soldier and mentions work of war graves commission. Submitted with caption 'Written on original insert "Remembrance Sunday". Talk by Leonard Cheshire on the meaning of Remembrance Sunday, broadcast BBC Radio 4, at 10.25 on 8 November 1987. Leonard mentions the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission'.
This item is available only at the University of Lincoln.
Creator
Language
Type
Format
Audio recording 00:04:46
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
SCheshireGL72021v20020-0001, SCheshireGL72021v20020-0001-Transcript
Transcription
Leonard Cheshire Resonate Project
File Title: Remembrance Sunday. Talk by GLC on the meaning of Remembrance Sunday
Duration: 4mn46s (6.7MB)
Transcription Date: 09.05.20
Archive Number: AV_S 265
Start of Transcription
00:01: GLC: Today is Remembrance Sunday, the day on which the nightmare of world war and the dream of world peace confront each other in the silence of our hearts. There, in the inner sanctuary of our being, and alone with our personal memories, we've strengthened our resolve to make the dream more the reality, and the nightmare more securely locked away in the prison of the past, but without lowering our guard against the possible future aggressor. As we prepare for this inner face-to-face, let us not forget that ours is a century, which brought world war into being, and Europe, the continent, which twice unleashed it upon mankind.
(00:57) Yet, this horror may also be seen as the death-rows of one age of history and the bringing to birth of a new age all together; one in which the weapon has become so powerful, and men’s aversion to its use so total that war between major powers is no longer a rational act.
(1:23) In the previous age, as far back as recorded history stretches, war was the acceptable way of settling disputes if no better one suggested itself. Had it not been so, had the 1914 generals and politicians not known public opinion was behind them, they would probably not have acted in the way they did. As it was, that declaration of war was greeted by cheering crowds outside Buckingham Palace.
(2:01) 'Before the autumn leaves fall', someone said, 'It will all be over'. The imagery of falling leaves as a prophecy of what was to come, I find deeply poignant and compelling. The leaves did indeed fall, regiment upon regiment of them. Not autumn leaves but spring times leaves -young and tender ones- to wither and die out of season, from nearly every garden in our beloved land; indeed from far beyond, even from the farthest reaches of the Commonwealth and Dominions.
(2:46) Yet, though dead, their sacrifice lives on, in the sad beauty of the war cemeteries which the Commonwealth War Graves Commission so lovingly cares for. On at least one of these, somewhere in the world, the sun is always rising.
(3:08) Such was the depth of feeling at the end of World War I, that a national act of remembrance and gratitude was instituted, the first of its kind, whose theme was peace not victory, and whose focal point was the Unknown Soldier, now buried in Westminster Abbey in a hundred sack fulls of French soil.
(3:35) Escorted from Calais to Boulogne by an entire French division, put on a cruiser at Verdun, as a mark of honour to France, he was brought to the cenotaph where, waiting to receive him on behalf of the nation, was His Majesty King George V.
(3:58) Unknown as to age, rank or country of origin, unknown as to whether he died instantly or in agony, unknown as to every single detail, he it is, in my mind, who gives Remembrance Day its power and its significance, for he belongs to all men and all time.
(4:25) Victim of the death-rows of an age of history, now receding behind us, he enshrines, in his anonymity, Man's universal longing for peace, towards whose fulfilment each of us must play our own part.
4:45: Speech Ends
4:46: End of recording.
End of Transcription
File Title: Remembrance Sunday. Talk by GLC on the meaning of Remembrance Sunday
Duration: 4mn46s (6.7MB)
Transcription Date: 09.05.20
Archive Number: AV_S 265
Start of Transcription
00:01: GLC: Today is Remembrance Sunday, the day on which the nightmare of world war and the dream of world peace confront each other in the silence of our hearts. There, in the inner sanctuary of our being, and alone with our personal memories, we've strengthened our resolve to make the dream more the reality, and the nightmare more securely locked away in the prison of the past, but without lowering our guard against the possible future aggressor. As we prepare for this inner face-to-face, let us not forget that ours is a century, which brought world war into being, and Europe, the continent, which twice unleashed it upon mankind.
(00:57) Yet, this horror may also be seen as the death-rows of one age of history and the bringing to birth of a new age all together; one in which the weapon has become so powerful, and men’s aversion to its use so total that war between major powers is no longer a rational act.
(1:23) In the previous age, as far back as recorded history stretches, war was the acceptable way of settling disputes if no better one suggested itself. Had it not been so, had the 1914 generals and politicians not known public opinion was behind them, they would probably not have acted in the way they did. As it was, that declaration of war was greeted by cheering crowds outside Buckingham Palace.
(2:01) 'Before the autumn leaves fall', someone said, 'It will all be over'. The imagery of falling leaves as a prophecy of what was to come, I find deeply poignant and compelling. The leaves did indeed fall, regiment upon regiment of them. Not autumn leaves but spring times leaves -young and tender ones- to wither and die out of season, from nearly every garden in our beloved land; indeed from far beyond, even from the farthest reaches of the Commonwealth and Dominions.
(2:46) Yet, though dead, their sacrifice lives on, in the sad beauty of the war cemeteries which the Commonwealth War Graves Commission so lovingly cares for. On at least one of these, somewhere in the world, the sun is always rising.
(3:08) Such was the depth of feeling at the end of World War I, that a national act of remembrance and gratitude was instituted, the first of its kind, whose theme was peace not victory, and whose focal point was the Unknown Soldier, now buried in Westminster Abbey in a hundred sack fulls of French soil.
(3:35) Escorted from Calais to Boulogne by an entire French division, put on a cruiser at Verdun, as a mark of honour to France, he was brought to the cenotaph where, waiting to receive him on behalf of the nation, was His Majesty King George V.
(3:58) Unknown as to age, rank or country of origin, unknown as to whether he died instantly or in agony, unknown as to every single detail, he it is, in my mind, who gives Remembrance Day its power and its significance, for he belongs to all men and all time.
(4:25) Victim of the death-rows of an age of history, now receding behind us, he enshrines, in his anonymity, Man's universal longing for peace, towards whose fulfilment each of us must play our own part.
4:45: Speech Ends
4:46: End of recording.
End of Transcription
Collection
Citation
G L Cheshire, “Remembrance Sunday - Leonard Cheshire,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 14, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/40177.