RUTHFULLY YOURS

Ninety-two years ago, King George V proclaimed that “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” would be observed throughout the British Empire as a commemoration of the cessation of hostilities in the Great War a year earlier. It still is, even unto the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this eleventh year in a new century. Three years ago, just before Remembrance Day, I was in the Crown Colony of the Turks and Caicos Islands and saw the islanders’ preparation for the ceremonies in Cockburn Town. In parts of Europe, they retain the day’s original name: Armistice Day. And of course it is Veterans Day in the United States. On this November 11th we thank the now very small band of surviving brothers from the First World War, and their comrades from the conflicts since.

You can read my essay from the first November 11th after September 11th here.

To mark the occasion, our Song of the Week audio edition starts with songs of the Great War, and concludes with a live performance of the very greatest ballad from those years performed by me and Monique Fauteux.

And, for our Friday Feature this week, from a later conflict, whose shadows linger, the film We Were Soldiers.