At the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War, the war to end all wars came to an end. The flower of an entire generation perished in this war and as Margret Lockett wrote in her book, "Antigua Then," not a British family in Antigua was untouched. To this day war rememberance practices and ceremonies are observed at this time because of this war. There is an entire altar dedicated to those young men who fell in this war and the other wars since. Their names are inscribed in the many plaques that surround this memorial. However there is one name there that fascinates me.
It is Captain Ian Donald Roy McDonald (
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/mcdonald1.php) a quadruple fighter ace of the then RFC/RAF. The propeller of his fighter aircraft an SE-5a (
http://www.acepilots.com/wwi/se5a.html) hangs over the altar.
He was credited with 20 aerial victories and was decorated. He survived the war only to perish in Iraq during the insurgency there in 1920.
I pray that the sacrifices that he and all the young men made in these armed conflicts, before and since then, be never devalued or forgotten by those of us whose freedom they secured. ....all the young men....on both sides of all conflicts.
May God grant us the wisdom and love for one another to stop sacrificing our young men and women in these armed conflicts.
Beautifully said and very moving.
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