Though Cowards Flinch

I attended the Remembrance parade and service in Buttermarket and Canterbury Cathedral this morning. Canterbury and the south east generally are dotted with military bases and the city has several nearby, so there were enough people to fill the Cathedral. Interestingly the friends I attended the service with told me that the attendance was much decreased on last year and we speculated as to whether that was a result of increased deployment on the part of some regiments.

Whatever the case, I was much cheered by the small acts of comedy which formed the interjections of real life into the sombre drama of the laying of the wreaths. One young soldier, charged with accepting the wreaths from their bearers and laying them before the war memorial, was chewing something for most of the proceedings. Another, himself charged with laying a wreath, looked exasperated that the old soldier in front of him was walking so slowly because it was cramping his marching tempo.

There were other things too; the squawking of seagulls, in complete ignorance of affairs so laden with significance for man or the rather drink-soaked tramps who, looking rather perplexed, stumbled through the crowd as we were watching the laying of the wreaths. Bearing in mind the contrived seriousness of some present the occasional farcical element was a welcome reminder that however dignified we may attempt to be, we’re still human – a theme which dovetailed nicely with the Sermon given by the Dean.

In the Cathedral, the occasional crying baby or the coughing during the two minute silence added to my sense of this.

Apart fom that, the music played was really a treat including Psalm 90 set to music by Ralph Vaughn Williams, which reminded me very much of Allegri’s ‘Miserere Me Deus’. Having never been inside the Cathedral before I never quite realised how wonderful the acoustics were. Beyond the attempt of the Dean to attribute everything wonderful about mankind to religion, the music was certainly the most remarkable aspect of the service and I was very pleased I decided to go.

Starbucks, which has a shop next door to the Cathedral, had even been so good as to lay on free coffee for all those attending and generally there was an atmosphere of solidarity, broken only by the irreverence of a few tourists gesticulating to one another. Despite my sentiments last night, and as far as I am concerned those sentiments stand, amid the wintry sunshine this morning, the ceremony seemed somehow fitting.