3rd OF SEPTEMBER

[Ian Adrian Millar]

3rd OF SEPTEMBER

Their names are etched in solid bronze,
On the plaques of Tower Hill.
Of those who sailed and gave their lives,
They are remembered still.

They traded life for worthy cause,
They were called, at sea were lost.
On colliers and on tankers too,
They paid that greater cost.

They wrote back home to tell the tale,
Of their life out on the sea.
They shared their dreams in penned out lines,
To keep their country free.

Upon the crest and in the trough,
Echo names of those who fell.
Brave souls who gave us all they had,
Remember, long and well.

So pause a bit this special day,
Speak their names in reverent tone.
Welcome them, our heroes gone,
Back to their hearth and home

Ian Adrian Millar

Remembering Dad who did his bit.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I am not a poet, but I wrote this a long time ago.

Her husband and his neighbour had gone to fight the foe
T came the deaths she'd dreamed so of many times before
Her eldest boy was buried deep beneath the waves
And her middle son lay buried an a mass of unmarked graves
Her youngest said before he left, I love you mother dear
A love much more than anyone, it gave her little cheer
AS she sat there pleading, let there be no more
There came a loud knocking on her black wreath covered door
A small boy dressed in uniform but not her loving son
He held up a yellow envelope that caught the setting sun
The tears that ran down his face she knew would never end
At last she knew that for a fact her life was at an end

[happy daze john in oz]

Des, that is great and so true.
Unless you experienced it personally you could never know the pain such mothers, and others, went through.

[Ian Adrian Millar]

Today we remember those who served at sea in the Merchant Navy but this verse is a reminder that very often the loss of a merchant seaman also was a loss to mothers and family members.

[James Curry]

rsz_1merchant_navy_memorial_-_liverpool_waterfront.jpg Lest we forget R.I.P