Remembrance Sunday

On Remembrance Sunday we commemorate the service and sacrifice of British and Commonwealth military and civilian men and women who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Merchant Navy and Emergency Services during World War I, World War II and later conflicts who defended our freedoms and protected our way of life.

Originally called Armistice Day in commemoration of the anniversary of the peace agreement that ended World War I (11th November 1918), after World War II it became Remembrance Sunday (the second Sunday in November).

The most recognizable symbol of Remembrance Sunday is the red poppy. In 1921 the newly formed British Legion (now the Royal British Legion), a charitable organisation for veterans, began selling red paper poppies for Armistice Day, and its annual Poppy Appeal has been enormously successful since.

“When You Go Home,
Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Your Tomorrow,
We Gave Our Today.“

This epitaph on the Kohima War Cemetery in India honours the soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Kohima during World War II is attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958); an English classicist, poet and author. It is thought to have been inspired by the epitaph written by Simonides of Ceos to honour the Greeks who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. The exact wording of Simonides’ epitaph is not known, but it is said to have read something along the lines of :

“Go tell the Spartans,
stranger passing by,
That here, obedient to their laws,
we lie.”

BajanThings is on a mission to record some of the stories from WWI and WWII of those valiant young men and women who volunteered and did not return and those that did return who did NOT speak about their often horrific experiences of war, and who, post war just got on with life as best that they could – often suppressing those war-time memories, living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  If you or a relative have a story please contact BajanThings.

P/O Andrew Cole in Lockheed Hudson cockpit

The Beautiful Blonde in the Bank – F/L Andrew Leslie Cole AFC RAF

/ 5 minutes of reading / Bajan History, Bajan People, Barbados during World War I and World War II, Barbados Post World War II, Remembrance Sunday / 4 Comments

Errol Barrow was Andrew Cole’s navigator while he was in the RAF, firstly with 88 Squadron “B” Flight Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) during World War II and for two years post-war they both flew with the BAFO Communications Squadron, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) Military Governor’s Flight assigned to Commander-in-Chief and Military Governor of the British Occupation …

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CNS Lady boats poster

The Canadian Lady Boats

/ 6 minutes of reading / Bajan History, Barbados during World War I and World War II, Barbados Post World War II, Remembrance Sunday / 7 Comments

Between 1928 and 1952 The Canadian National Steamship Company Lady Boats (The Canadian Lady Boats) operated two routes from Canada to the West Indies the: eastern-route route: where steamships, Lady Nelson, Lady Hawkins and Lady Drake, provided a year-round service every two weeks from Halifax to Bermuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, …

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Aerial view of Carlisle Bay including torpedo net - 1942

Anti Submarine & Torpedo Net – Carlisle Bay, Barbados 1942

/ 7 minutes of reading / Bajan History, Barbados during World War I and World War II, Remembrance Sunday / Leave a Comment

In early September 1942 the Royal Navy installed an anti-submarine and anti-torpedo boom net across Carlisle Bay. That boom net was tested and breached on 11th September 1942 shortly after 4:30 by German U-boat 514. Carlisle Bay in 1942 was much deeper than it is today. Burkes beach at times had no beach and the …

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Errol Barrow, Statesman, PM Barbados, RAF Navigator - crew graduation No. 31 OTU RAF Debert, Nova Socia Canada - 7 April 1944

F/O Errol Barrow RAF Navigator World War II & Prime Minister of Barbados

/ 82 minutes of reading / Bajan History, Bajan People, Barbados during World War I and World War II, Barbados Post World War II, Black History Month, Remembrance Sunday / 4 Comments

Errol Walton Barrow (21st January 1920 – 1st June 1987): distinguished Barbadian statesman, visionary leader and a champion of Caribbean unity who led Barbados to independence on 30th November 1966 and then served as Barbados’ first and fourth Prime Minister. Prior to independence from: 1961 to 1966 as leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Errol …

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Allied Merchant Ships Sunk - Capt. W.H.R. Armstrong

Survivors arriving in Barbados in May 1942 from merchant ships sunk by German U-Boats

/ 22 minutes of reading / Bajan History, Bajan People, Barbados during World War I and World War II, Remembrance Sunday / 7 Comments

In May of 1942 there was intense activity by U-Boats in the Caribbean that resulted in heavy losses of allied shipping. Germany was trying, and succeeding, to disrupt the supplies of war material reaching Europe from the USA and Caribbean. Trinidad and Venezuela were supplying the allies with petroleum products, Guyana with Bauxite and the …

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Bajan schooner - Florence M. Douglas

The Sinking of the Florence M. Douglas and the story of Douglas the Barbadian who joined the German Navy in World War II.

/ 4 minutes of reading / Bajan History, Bajan People, Barbados during World War I and World War II, Remembrance Sunday / 3 Comments

The Florence M. Douglas was a schooner built in Holetown, Barbados, and owned by Peter S. Hassell.  On the 4th May 1942 she was sailing at 07.55N 58.10W from Bonaire, Netherland Antilles, to Georgetown, British Guiana, with a cargo of salt. At 19:00 the U-162 fired a shot across the bow and Captain Herbert Rexford …

The Sinking of the Florence M. Douglas and the story of Douglas the Barbadian who joined the German Navy in World War II. Read More »

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