Thimble 104 - TDoR

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TDoR... never heard of it? Neither had I until recently. I was looking for an idea for this week and stumbled on a special Day of Remembrance happening this weekend (20th Nov). It was founded in 1998 for the victims of a particular kind of hate crime.

TDoR
Transgender Day of Remembrance

I'm not sure what's sadder - the fact I never knew there was such a day or the fact there is a need for a day specific to one small group of people who end up being attacked and killed for being different. I went and looked at the memorial page on the TDoR website. There's page after page of memorials; all of them died horrific, brutal deaths.

I used to have a transgender blog friend, "used to" not because she's dead, but because she had to stop blogging after people figured out who she was... and sent her partner death threats.

As a blogger she was one of my favourite weekly reads - insightful and eloquent, caring and deeply spiritual. I miss her blog, but I completely understand the fact she put the safety of those she loved above her own personal needs. That's what a decent human being does...

Decent human beings do not attack and kill others merely because they are different....

Thimble 78 - A Little Town with a Huge Heart

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In honour of the people of Wootton Bassett, Queen Elizabeth II has bestowed the word 'Royal' to the town - so it will soon be known as 'Royal Wootton Bassett'. This is the first time for over a hundred years that this honour has been bestowed to any town or village in the UK.

What makes the people of Royal Wootton Bassett so special? Watch Rob Mayall's lovely tribute to his hometown to find out...

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Thimble 71 - the Tiger Tragedy

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Do you recognise this war memorial? It commemorates the deaths of over 700 servicemen, during WWII - including 441 United States Army and 197 United States Navy personnel.

I'll give you a few hints:

This monument was only made possible by the passionate dedication of a former British policeman who literally stumbled onto the story on a sea shore.
The submerged tank was finally raised from the sea in 1984 and made into a monument, with a plaque, provided by local residents and local authorities.

Here's that plaque...

Both photos courtesy of Wikipedia

Slapton Beach was part of an area of Devon completely evacuated (farms and villages) so that Allied troups could use the area to prepare for D-Day. The code names for this extremely secret battle rehearsal were Exercise Tiger or Operation Tiger.

On April 28 April a flotilla of eight LSTs (landing ship, tank) was busy transporting troops and equipment to Slapton Sands when disaster happened. Being a covert operation led to a breakdown in communications - no-one warned them of the German Torpedo boats in the area. The BBC history archive says:

In the early hours of 28 April 1944, a convoy of eight American landing ship tanks (LSTs) were carrying out a D-Day dress rehearsal off the South Devon coast when they were ambushed by German E-boats.

Two of the LSTs were sunk in the attack off Slapton Sands, killing 749 US servicemen - a higher death toll than at the initial D-Day landings which were to take place on Utah Beach, Normandy, two months later.

Orders of strictest secrecy were imposed. They covered everyone, even the doctors and nurses who treated the survivors. D-Day became a real event, the war ended and the tragedy of Slapton Sands became just one of many.

Then, one day in 1968, a former policeman who had moved to the area was walking on the beach when he started to find fragments of war; buttons and bullets. He started asking questions and was horrified at the story. And even more horrified that while the Americans had raised a monument to honour the people of Slapton, who had given up their homes for the war effort, there was no memorial to the soldiers who had died here.

His name was Kenneth Small and you can read the whole story of his struggles to get a memorial for the Operation Tiger Tragedy, plus photos on the secondworldwar.org.uk website.
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Thimble 53 - The Red Poppy

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In Ancient times the poppy was the symbol of the Greek god, Morpheus - the god of dreams, probably because opiate drugs are derived from some species of poppy. It's also a flower seen in late summer and Autumn, which leads it to being linked with the year ending and harvest.

With the dawn of Christianity the poppy moved from being a symbol of dreams and slumber to being a symbol of resting peacefully in death. Poppies grow best in soil that has been dug up and turned over, as in harvest...

...or in war or around graves.

In 1915 a young Canadian doctor, named John McCrae, was stationed in France during the war. He saw the poppies growing on battlefields of Flanders and was moved to write the beautiful poem "In Flanders Fields" ...but it was actually an American woman, named Moira Michael, who made the first pledge to wear a red poppy in honour of those who had died in the war. Her pledge is in her poem "We Shall Keep the Faith", written in 1918.

Today the red poppy is worn (usually on Nov 11 - Remembrance Day/Armistice Day) to commemorate all servicemen and women who have been killed in wars since 1914....

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"Only Remembered" (Bonar/Sankey/Tams Voice Publishing) is used by permission and is taken from the album "Private Peaceful The Concert" (No Masters NMCD24, http://www.nomasters.co.uk ) by Coope Boyes & Simpson (http://www.coopeboyesandsimpson.co.uk )..

Thimble 5 - Horse Memorial

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'Don't forget those who serve and suffer without voices...
the animals of war.'

Michelle Frost

This photo below is of a horse being offloaded from a ship in Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony, during the Anglo-Boer war.

This photo comes (courtesy of Wikipedia) from the book, Horses on board ship : a guide to their management (1902) by Hayes, Matthew Horace.

Port Elizabeth has a memorial to the horses of the Anglo-Boer war.

It's a beautiful statue that I've stopped to look at many times over the years. The words carved on the memorial always touch my heart...

THE GREATNESS OF A NATION
CONSISTS NOT SO MUCH UPON THE NUMBER OF ITS PEOPLE
OR THE EXTENT OF ITS TERRITORY
AS IN THE EXTENT AND JUSTICE OF ITS COMPASSION

ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION
IN RECOGNITION OF THE SERVICES OF THE GALLANT ANIMALS
WHICH PERISHED IN THE ANGLO BOER WAR 1899-1902

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