Monday 4 August 2014

Light a Candle

Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey: "The lamps are going out all over Europe and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
Grey's own memoirs, published in 1925, mention the remark as taking place on 3 August 1914:
A friend came to see me on one of the evenings of the last week — he thinks it was on Monday, August 3rd. We were standing at a window of my room in the Foreign Office. It was getting dusk, and the lamps were being lit in the space below on which we were looking. My friend recalls that I remarked on this with the words: "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time."]
In 1927 John Alfred Spender, editor of the Westminster Gazette until 1922, confessed that he had been the friend Grey had spoken to:
I had two short talks with Grey during the "twelve days". I ran into him on the stairs of the Foreign Office on Saturday, August 1st [...] I saw him again late in the evening at his room at the Foreign Office on Monday, August 3rd, and it was to me he used the words which he has repeated in his book, "The lamps are going out all over Europe, and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime." We were standing together at the window looking out into the sunset across St. James's Park, and the appearance of the first lights along the Mall suggested the thought.

ON MONDAY 4 AUGUST, EVERYONE IN THE UK IS INVITED TO TURN THEIR LIGHTS OUT FROM 10PM-11PM LEAVING ON A SINGLE LIGHT OR CANDLE TO MARK THE MOMENT THE UK ENTERED THE FIRST WORLD WAR, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

12 comments:

  1. Thank you Jim.

    Anon SPO 2

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  2. After reading todays blog it made me sad to think that the Probation Service started before the First World War, and no one seems to care about us. And I bet Probation Officers in those days gave their services to the community.

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  3. Off topic, but thought it worth mentioning that our crc are advertising for peer mentors, pay scale 1 £14,000-£17,000.. The post involves face to face contact with offenders and is a 12month temp contract funded by the lottery...

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  4. Some may notice I've taken the very unusual step of removing a comment because I felt it was designed to inflame, added nothing to reasoned debate and irritated me. Just thought I'd say.

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    Replies
    1. Your gaff your rules......
      I think most people have always found you fair and your actions balanced and with good reason.

      Have you ever thought of becoming a Probation Officer as you have the skills needed to do the job :)

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    2. I didn't get it either and it did inflame me but I didn't know what to say because I didn't know where it came from and what it was about. In the last few days we were only trying to point out that we could do with SPO support in fighting TR, I didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

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    3. Wilfred Owen
      Anthem for Doomed Youth

      What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
      Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
      Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
      Can patter out their hasty orisons.
      No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
      Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
      The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
      And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

      What candles may be held to speed them all?
      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
      Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
      The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
      Their flowers the tenderness of silent maids,
      And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

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  5. I missed the eviction, but will respect the single light concept. Chapeau, M.Brown.

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  6. I am very sad, as the loss of life in so many wars, has not achieved peace and so today's blog is very poignant..Just the other day I heard on the news a ceasefire was in place, "to allow humanitarian aid such as burying the dead"...when did death become humanitarian?

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  7. I hope the glow of a handheld device doesn't constitute a breach? In our place, many are observing the vigil save for the openly tory loudmouth whose "englishman's castle" (read nouveau riche new build twat house) is lit like a fucking xmas tree. It hasn't gone unnoticed. I'm hoping the local press might print a picture tomorrow...

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  8. Sobering to reflect on what has inspired or driven men and women to take up arms-the desire to save and protect as well as seek adventure/"find oneself" or seek advantage or revenge. Terrible price paid.

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  9. Yes, unfortunately, we seem to have a habit of making enemies of each other, often due to our own inability to see the situation clearly...

    This blog and certain events around would make a great movie one day... who would play Jim?

    What's the use of worrying?

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