Visit to the Field of Remembrance to honour those who fell

 

At Westminster Field of Remembrance, each planted tribute carries a personal message to someone who lost their life in service. 

Dawn Petrie, Maritime Technical Trainer at the MCA, paid her respects there yesterday on behalf of the agency.

Here, Dawn explains why Remembrance means so much to her.

“Remembrance Day has always held a special place in my heart. Some of my earliest memories are of the vast number of boxes that would arrive at my gran’s house from August onwards filling up her tiny hallway. Each of these boxes contained the individual elements that would make up the poppies. 

"The red flower, the leaves, then stem and the black bottom to hold them altogether. From then on full blown poppy production was in order, there were no idle hands at that time of the year. Every spare minute was used making the poppies and as a return for a cup of tea and biscuit, any visitor was also required to help.

“The collection boxes arrived soon afterwards and I was dispatched to assist my gran in bringing the now complete poppies and collection boxes to shops and workplaces in the local area.

“As I grew older the significance of the poppy and the sacrifice our families made became more apparent as I learnt more about two of my relations who were killed in active Duty.

“Kenneth Wallace was a 22-year-old Sergent in the Royal Artillery and was killed on active service on the 27th September 1941. He was involved in a road traffic collision in an army vehicle in Newbury, Berkshire, having survived a campaign in France.

“John Cassells Browne was 28 years old and held the rank of Major in ‘D’ company, 6th Battalion Durham Light Infantry. He was killed on the 9th August 1944 in La Cannardiere after successfully securing the village but before it could be protected the Germans commenced artillery and motor bombardment killing 12 and injuring 50.

“Other members of my family have served in the military over the years, including both my maternal grandparents, my paternal grandfather and a cousin who is still in active service.

“I am proud to be wearing my Coastguard uniform, representing the agency at the garden of Remembrance and to pay respects, not only to my family members, but also to the countless individuals who sacrificed so much for our freedom.

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five ships detained after inspection following concerns raised about crew welfare

Image
Five out of the six ships inspected today by Maritime and Coastguard Agency surveyors have been detained. The Astoria, Astor, Colombus and Vasco de Gama at Tilbury have all been detained. The Marco Polo at Bristol has also been detained following its inspection. All five are from the same company – Global Cruise Lines Limited. Four of the vessels are flagged with the Bahamas and one with Portugal (Madeira) . Surveyors found a number of expired and invalid Seafarers Employment Agreements, late payment of wages and crews who had been on board for over 12 months. All these are in breach of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) and the ships have been detained for that reason.  Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps said: “The welfare of seafarers is of the utmost importance and we take any reports of safety concerns around crew incredibly seriously. "Following today’s investigation, five ships have been detained and we will not hesitate to continue to use every po...
Read more

Oral exams to be held online under plans from Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Image
Engineering oral exams will commence online from 11 May under new plans announced by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. In addition, the MCA is also actively working on plans to provide an online way of carrying out Deck oral exams. Marine offices will get in contact with candidates who had previously had theirs cancelled to arrange new dates but everyone is being asked not to get in touch while the backlog is cleared. Katy Ware, Director of Maritime Safety and Standards said: ‘We completely understand people are anxious to get their all important exams done but we can’t accept any new oral exam bookings until we have cleared the backlog of those who had theirs cancelled because of Covid-19.’ ‘We will publish a MIN later this month to provide further guidance on accepting new applications for oral exams. The MIN will also provide timelines for the future booking of exams; for those who hold Notice of Eligibilities (NOEs), those who have applied for NOEs and those who are abou...
Read more

Shortlist of bidders announced for the next decade of Coastguard search and rescue aviation

Image
The shortlist of companies being invited to tender for the next generation of search and rescue aviation has been announced by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. From today (10 June), the shortlisted bidders will be invited to tender for the UK Second-Generation Search and Rescue Aviation programme – known as UKSAR2G – to provide HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopters, planes and remotely piloted drones. The UKSAR2G invitation to tender will be issued to these shortlisted bidders to provide their responses by the end of August this year: Lot 1: Rotary, shorter endurance with standard carriage capacity for short range rescue work Bristow Helicopters Ltd EEA Helicopters Operations B.V Serco Limited Lot 2: Rotary; High endurance with larger carriage capacity for long range/multiple casualty rescues Bristow Helicopters Ltd EEA Helicopters Operations B.V. Serco Limited Lot 3: Fixed-wing, manned and potentially unmanned for rapid search, surveillance and pollution identification 2Excel...
Read more