"For your tomorrow, we gave our today"

By TOM NEWTON DUNNPolitical Editor
Published: The Sun Monday 09 Nov 2009

A BOY of seven symbolises the gratitude - and sadness - of a nation yesterday as he wears his grandad's medals at the Remembrance ceremony in London. Proud Connor Stickels - standing on a postbox so he could see above the crowd at the Cenotaph - gently touched the military awards presented to his 'gramps' - a Royal Navy veteran from World War II.

Connor had waited patiently in the crowd for three hours to pay the tribute to his beloved grandad, deceased Allan Slater, who took part in missions in the Atlantic as well as in Burma.
But the youngster's touching display of affection and pride on a cold November morning in London was being repeated across the country.

In the capital, it was the Queen who led the tributes. Under the heavy grey skies, she stood ramrod straight in respect in front of the Whitehall memorial as Big Ben chimed 11 o'clock to mark the start of a perfectly-kept two minutes' silence.

Prince Harry was representing Prince Charles, who is on a tour in Canada. The message on his wreath, written by his father, read: "In grateful and everlasting memory." But the wreath of other son Prince William was more touching.

Trainee RAF pilot William dedicated his message to two close Sandhurst friends who were killed in action in 2007. Referring to his mentor Major Alexis Roberts, killed in southern Afghanistan, and fellow officer cadet 2nd Lt Jo Dyer, it read: "In memory of Lex, Jo and others who have made the ultimate sacrifice."

The day had extra poignancy as it also marked the passing of a generation that had given so much. It was the first Remembrance Sunday ever - in 90 years - held with no World War I Army veterans left alive. The last Tommy from the 1914-18 conflict, Harry Patch, died aged 111 in July.

But with 2009 the most tragic year for the Forces since the Falklands War 27 years ago, the day had a special significance for people across the country. In many minds were the words that appear on the Kohima Memorial commemorating Allied troops who died in 1944 in the Burma campaign - "When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today."
One little girl facing a lifetime of sorrow, after the sacrifice made by her dad, was 11-year-old Poppy Griffith-Gibson.

Her Flight Sergeant father Mark was killed aboard an RAF C-130 in Iraq nearly five years ago.
She laid a poppy memorial to her dad at a service in Wootton Bassett, Wilts.

It was an appropriate location. The market town regularly turns out in its thousands to pay tribute to service victims being returned home from Afghanistan.

Christina Schmid, 34 - widow of bomb disposal hero Olaf Schmid - had to battle with her emotions as she honoured the staff sergeant at a service in Truro, Cornwall. Her husband, 30, was killed a week ago as he tried to defuse a bomb in Helmand.

With tears in their eyes and poppies pinned to their winter coats, ten year-old Adam Chant and sister Victoria, eight, stood proudly in line to remember their dad at a Remembrance service in Horndean, Hants.

Regimental Sergeant Major Darren "Daz" Chant, 40, was one of the five British troops murdered in cold-blood by a Taliban assassin posing as an Afghan cop last week.

Roger Patch, 52, grandson of last World War I Army veteran Harry Patch, paid an emotional tribute to him at his graveside in Monkton Combe, Somerset.

And in another touching tribute Alex Flintham, five, from Chadwell Heath, Essex, carried a cross with the names of four of his great great-grandads and great uncles who died in World War I.
There were services too in Afghanistan, with Britain's 9,000 troops holding frontline tributes to mark the loss of close comrades - including two over the weekend.

The Household Cavalry Regiment gathered around a wooden cross they had erected in Musa Qalah - the most remote forward operating base in Helmand. And the British task force's commander there, Brigadier James Cowen, laid a wreath at a memorial wall in Lashkar Gah.
The two troops to fall over the weekend were both killed near the hotspot town of Sangin, and both members of The Rifles.

Back in Britain, Chelsea players invited over 200 soldiers to their sell-out clash with Manchester United yesterday as a Remembrance Day tribute. CHIEF of the Defence Staff Sir Jock Stirrup yesterday said more needed to be done to show the British public that the mission in Afghanistan was "do-able". t.newtondunn@the-sun.co.uk

Posted by: Michelle Nielsen