Other than the phrase "In Memoriam" one of the most common phrases used on memorials to those who have died in tragic circumstances is "Lest We Forget". Today virtually the whole world will remember the events that happened a year ago. Some commentators have referred to it as the "Day We Lost Our Innocence" but they would be those with short memories. That happened at least 88 years ago. So billions of people will remember this day,a year ago, when the difference between "Freedom Fighters" and terrorists was brought into sharp focus and no longer would those who used the bomb and the bullet nor the slaying of young children as a means to so called self determination be tolerated. The real tragedy was that it took such an event to bring this message home to so many. However the question I must ask is for how long will we not only remember those who died and,equally, the dear ones that were left to mourn. Forever? 100...50...20 years? Certainly 50 years for the immediacy,in both time and location, will ensure that.... but any longer ? There is an Autoroute,(Freeway), known as the A26, that runs from Calais in France down to the French Riviera. Some 75 miles from Calais the road passes only one and a half miles from a village named Bony. I would be surprised but also delighted if any who read this recognise the name but there are 1,844 American soldiers buried there among them 3 who were awarded the Medal of Honour. one from New York. Not far away,near Bellicourt, is one of the most beautiful and impressive war memorials I have ever seen. It was erected by America in memory of those men of the 27th and 30th American divisions who are buried at Bony and it also commemorates 333 others who are still classified as "Missing Presumed Dead". A total of 2,177 brave men for brave they were. as was borne out in the story I related of my father who fought alongside them in the battle to break the Hindenburg Line, when one of them helped save his life. Apart from beig graphic in design it is also most informative as, set in the finest marble, is a depiction of a compass and a map showing the movements of the U.S. Divisions so it is not difficult to envisage those brave men pouring across the fields towards where we stood and them geting mown down by German machine guns, for despite the assistance of the crack Australian battalions the objectives were not reached that day I know this is repeating what I have already written but every year, on the Monday following another 11th day,, 11th November 1918, 2 friends and I return to the World War I battlefields,tracing the route my father followed during his 2 years and 2 months on the Somme You could describe us as an unlikely group,an Australian, an Irishman and a Spaniard to make such a pilgrimage,( for pilgrimage is what it is). I make the arrangements, Danny, the Irishman drives the car and Francis, the Spaniard buys 3 small crosses, about 6 inches by four with a Flanders Poppy fixed at the centre. I place mine on any of the graves of my father's battalion I come across, Danny places his on the grave of his uncle who was killed near Amiens and Francis places his where he feels is most appropriate. For the last 2 years this has been at the American memorial for the very simple reason that apart from the wreaths placed by the local French there are no signs of Rememberance from the country from whence those heros came. Do not ask me why they appear to be forgotten for no other memorial built by the Allies is so sorely neglected. In saying "neglected" I refer to the lack of rememberance not of its codition for it is a pristine as the day it was built. Indeed the marble was so clean it seemed close to sacrilige to walk on it I know there is a U.S Commission responsible for the maintainence of the memorials and that it is located in France and surely the placing of a wreath once a year is not asking too much. I make no apology for raising this issue on this day but I hope you do not think it inappropriate. Our thoughts,here,in the UK are with you and although we are sometimes accused of living in the past, I would rather that than being found guilty of never visiting it at all, So "Lest We Forget" I will continue to make my annual pilgrimage. Keith Hume