Representatives of the Lanarkshire Lieutenancy will once again lay wreaths at nearly 70 War Memorials in the county over Remembrance Weekend . Lord Lieutenant , Lady Susan Haughey CBE said ” It is 80 years since the Second World War ended. It had cost the lives of millions; destroyed homes, families and cities; and had caused universal suffering. 2,309 Lanarkshire men and women lost their lives in the War. Their names are inscribed on memorials in towns and villages across the county. We will pay our respects on Remembrance Sunday.
Only a few now are left to tell us of the immense relief they felt when the intense strain of total war was finally over. And how they rejoiced at street parties and how they danced and sang with unbridled joy.
The people of Lanarkshire – our parents, grandparents and great grandparents – had more than played their part. They served in every branch and service of our Armed Forces as well as in Civil Defence and on the Home Front: in our factories, farms, furnaces, mines, mills and shipyards. Rationing, civil defence precautions against air raids, gas masks for all including babies, internment for ‘enemy aliens.’ Everyone was affected by the War and everyone played their part.
May our inspiration be renewed by the words of King George VI in his broadcast on Christmas Day 1945:
‘Let us have no fear of the future but think of it as opportunity and adventure. The same dauntless resolve, which you have shown so abundantly in the years of danger, that the power of darkness shall not prevail, must now be turned to a happier purpose, to making the light shine more brightly everywhere.’
We remember those who did not come home. We remember those who fought and who died and who suffered in body and in mind, so many of them until their last dying day. We acknowledge our incalculable debt to them.
Let us make the light shine more brightly everywhere.”
There will be five main council Remembrance Services held on Sunday 9th November:
- Airdrie War Memorial – Service commences at 10.45am
- The Cenotaph, Duchess of Hamilton Park, Motherwell – Services commences at 3pm.
- The War Memorial, Graham Avenue ,East Kilbride at 10.40am.
- The Cenotaph , Bothwell Road, Hamilton at 3pm .
- The Glenview War Memorial, Larkhall at 10.30am.