In the course of a project I have completed, I was forced to confront the cost of military service and costs of loss to those closest to the service men and women. The strength of those left behind can be seen in the Festival of Remembrance annually, but for me it was brought home in this project, when working with a soldier’s mother, to commemorate him.
Through that project, while working on a parallel project the Unknown Warrior was in my mind and in particular after Westminster Abbey was closed for the night on the 11th of November, letters and bunches of flowers were at the foot of the grave, one bunch of flowers read “In Loving Memory of Tom, from Dad and Mum”. It is a fact that war and military service causes up society to give up its young men and women and to send them into harms way. For some, this means they pay a heavy burden, that never ever fades.
When I have given tours of Commonwealth War Grave Commission’s cemeteries I have tried to show this human cost to conflict, and to highlight that these are men and women who once lived, loved, had families and that their loss had a cost.
Major History 