Whilst the politicians will jostle for position with their pristine poppies and the press will show endless pictures of royalty 'doing their bit' at the ceremonies, we, the people, will reflect on how the everyday person fought a war.
I would love one day to see a Remembrance ceremony without any politicians, royalty or religious leaders present. The very people who start wars!
This is why Siegfried Sassoon will always be one of my heroes. A person who endured the very worst of trench warfare and combined his biting intelligence and satire to the greatest effect.
The Great Men
The great ones of the earth
Approve, with smiles and bland salutes, the rage
And monstrous tyranny they have brought to birth.
The great ones of the earth
Are much concerned about the wars they wage,
And quite aware of what those wars are worth.
You Marshals, gilt and red
You Ministers and Princes, and Great Men,
Why can't you keep your mouthings for the dead?
Go round the simple cemeteries; and then
Talk of our noble sacrifice and losses
To the wooden crosses.
© Siegfried Sassoon
Published in the Cambridge Magazine, 17 August 1918.
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