Remembrance Sunday 2010

Spitfire, Spitfre

Spitfire, Spitfire, flying on high,

Knight of the realm in the blue Sussex sky,

Camouflaged eagle, our national guard,

Angel of freedom, bound never to die.

Hear the siren, the clang of the bell,

"Quick to your aircraft", the captain will yell,

Jump in the cockpit to meet fast the foe,

Guns fully loaded, ascending to hell.

I was a pilot, a postman by trade,

I had to fight, for your future I paid,

My wife and my children, last though in my mind,

Long in the memory, never to fade.

Flag of our union, all we hold dear,

Defend us from hatred, from evil, from fear,

Remember this day, lest we ever forget,

Poppies on crosses, shed many a tear.

NJT

Work Experience!

Uncovered: The Palace that Slipped into the Sea
By Nich Turner

Marine discoveries of Cleopatra’s palace at Alexandria have uncovered many artefacts due to excellent preservation conditionsOngoing marine excavations at the Egyptian port of Alexandria may have uncovered the palace of Cleopatra, lost for over 1,600 years after slowly sliding into the sea. Fieldwork conducted over a twelve year period by a team headed by Franck Goddio, and later Zahi Hawass, has unearthed what many experts believe to be the long-lost royal site where the Egyptian queen lived and, ultimately, took her life with lover Mark Antony. The site has led to the discovery of many fascinating artefacts; a massive stone head of Caesarion, Cleopatra’s son, a headless sculpture of a female goddess, thought to represent Cleopatra herself and, most importantly, the statue of a great priest of Isis, holding a canopic jar and two sphinxes, regarded by archaeologists as King Ptolemy, Cleopatra’s father. The excellent preservation of the palace is due to the anaerobic conditions of the underwater complex, where there is little oxygen to aid the erosion process. As a result, many organic artefacts have been brought to the surface, including a wooden platform thought to have been part of a Royal house, and a papyrus document, which may bear the actual handwriting of the Egyptian queen.

Zahi Hawass, famous Egyptologist and self-proclaimed Indiana Jones, says he will now be searching for the tomb of Mark Antony, and indeed believes it will be possible to find the bodies of the tragic couple sharing their last embrace. Hawass, who famously demanded the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum in 2009, says that any discovery of this sort would represent the biggest find in Egyptian archaeology since Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. Meanwhile, whilst the exploration of the underwater complex continues, the incredible artefacts have gone on display in Philadelphia’s Franklin institute, with tours across America scheduled for 2011.

18 June 1940

"What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour."

A new beginning...

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Saint George's Day

England, My England

What have I done for you,

England, my England?

What is there I would not do,

England, my own?

With your glorious eyes austere,

As the Lord were walking near,

Whispering terrible things and dear

As the Song on your bugles blown,

England -

Round the world on your bugles blown!

Where shall the watchful sun,

England, my England,

Match the master-work you've done,

England, my own?

When shall he rejoice agen

Such a breed of mighty men

As come forward, one to ten,

To the Song on your bugles blown,

England -

Down the years on your bugles blown?

Ever the faith endures,

England, my England -

'Take and break us: we are yours,

England, my own!

Life is good, and joy runs high

Between English earth and sky:

Death is death; but we shall die

To the Song of your bugles blown,

England -

To the stars on your bugles blown!'

They call you proud and hard,

England, my England:

You with worlds to watch and ward,

England, my own!

You whose mail'd hand keeps the keys

Of such teeming destinies,

You could know nor dread nor ease

Were the Song on your bugles blown,

England,

Round the Pit on your bugles blown!

Mother of Ships whose might,

England, my England,

Is the fierce old Sea's delight,

England, my own,

Chosen daughter of the Lord,

Spouse-in-Chief of the ancient Sword,

There's the menace of the word

In the Song on your bugles blown,

England -

Out of heaven on your bugles blown!

William Ernest Henley