Rememberance Sunday

 

2008: The 90 Years of Remembrance - Lest We Forget

The mini sheet shows the wreaths on the Cenotaph in London which, the national point of remembrance. The stamp shows the Isle of Man's National War Memorial in the village of St John's whose wreath laying ceremony is this afternoon followed by a service of remembrance at the Royal Chapel.

2015: Stories from the Great War (Design - Charlotte Barnes)

The confident "Home by Christmas" was said of the troops at the outbreak of World War One in 1914.  Philip Carré the postman on the island of Sark joined the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry and would return in 1919 when the regiment was demobilized. He would send more than one Christmas card.

The bottom stamp shows the postmen from the Bailiwick of Guernsey who joined the Post Office Rifles, originally a volunteer territorial unit.  That changed at the outbreak of the World War in 1914 when they were called up to serve abroad.  Lawrence Burridge was killed in May 1916, age 23 and Albert Smith died from gunshot wounds in December 1917, age 25. The other three, Privates JG Fowler, AW Smith and HF Taylor's fate is unknown, lets hope they made it home.  I think the reason for the uncertainty is that half the British army's service records were destroyed in 1940 when a German bombing raid struck the War Office in London.

Sunday Stamps theme - Military - See It On A Postcard