After the War

A light brown brick building with a stepped gable in the Belgian city of Iper (Ypres).
1922
In Ypres (Ieper) look upon the gables, rooftops and walls…there are reminders here.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

Reminders

After the war…each day’s new peace is punctuated by the craggy and weighted fragments of former ambition and rubble. Once these were buildings…these were homes. The exclamations, and pauses, the commas, the full stops of life.

With each day a small section of peace is renewed as foundation is revealed…the rebuilding continues. Brick by brick, stone by stone, breath to breath…the people reclaim their spaces, their places. There was war once here…the rat-a-tat-tat of the machine gun replaced by the tat-a-tat-tat of the stone mason’s hammer and chisel. The war continues each day, the staccato of steel…as stone chips fall…year by year. These are the signs 1 9 2 1 1 9 2 2 1 9 2 3. Read them here at Ypres, hear them from their walls, their rooftops, their gables. This is their chorus of rebirth. These are reminders of war.

At Ypres they came…the pilgrims and people knew they would come…to find their loves, their sons and daughters, their families caught by this land. They came soon…on their own or with help…St. Barnabas… the YMCA…the British War Graves Commission…the Salvation Army…the Church Army…a father…a mother…family in search of their love…their kin amidst this soil, forever sacred, forever light. The darkness shall not find them.

And here amongst the foundations a new stone is placed. There will be a new beginning, building or home…as pilgrims wander, fallen fragments. These are reminders of war.

Previously published Pipes of War website, 28 October 2019

Never say goodbye

A well-worn copy of "The Story of Peter Pan" sits with crumbled old papers. A much loved book read time and time again.
The Story of Peter Pan for Little People.
R. Ferguson image, March 2019.

Far away in the Never-Never-Never-Land, the Lost Boys lived in a forest…
They lived like moles under the ground.
The Story of Peter Pan For Little People (A New Home, pp. 32-33)

Alone and discarded among other former memories. Spine broken – fitted with an assortment of mending tape. Once read…many times read, the life passed from its pages..now reborn by a caring hand that knew another story it could tell…of a lost boy close to author James Matthew Barrie.

The Peter Pan statue at Kensington Gardens, London. Peter with his flute or trumpet atop a much sculpted plinth featuring animals.
George Frampton’s Peter Pan statue at Kensington Gardens, London.
P. Ferguson image, March 2017.

George Llewellyn Davies served in the Great War…a Second Lieutenant with the 6th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, attached to the Rifle Brigade. In his youth George was Barrie’s inspiration for the character of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.  One famous line, described as memorable,  To die will be an awfully big adventure succumbs to Davies’ Great War when on March 15, 1915…George joined the lost boys of many families. George Llewellyn Davies is buried at Voormezeele Enclosure No.3, Voormezeele, near Ieper (Ypres), Belgium.

A magical photo of ducks floating peacefully top the Serpentine. Colourful birds on gently motioned water.
The ducks in the Serpentine, Kensington Gardens, London.
P. Ferguson image, March 2017.

Frampton’s statue was commissioned by Barrie and appeared overnight, without permissions, 30 April 1912. Barrie published the following note, There is a surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning. Down by the little bay on the south-western side of the tail of the Serpentine they will find a May-day gift by Mr J.M. Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of a tree, with fairies and mice and squirrels all around. It is the work of Sir George Frampton, and the bronze figure of the boy who would never grow up is delightfully conceived. (The Times, 1 May 1912).

The red petals of a floral plant next to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone of George Llewellyn Davies, the inspiration for Peter Pan.
Alongside George Llewellyn Davies, at Voormezeele Enclosure No. 3, Belgium.
P. Ferguson image, September 2006.

Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away, and away means forgetting.
Peter Pan
J.M. Barrie, 1904

Previously published Pipes of War website, 16 March 2019

To the Light of the Morning…

A Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone detail recording the next of kin of Private W. Fletcher's grave. His parents chose the inscription "Some Day We'll Understand". A wooden poppy cross with a red poppy and hand lettered inscription is in the foreground.
The inscription on Private W. Fletcher’s grave at Ypres, Belgium…Some Day We’ll Understand.
P. Ferguson image, 9 November 2018.

…I’ll let it in

This day, 11 November 2018…a hundred years has passed and in my time I have hoped to bring to you…connection. These words have followed my path as I have followed the trails of the Great War from the June heat of Gallipoli to the cold gusts of a November Western Front.

It was not long ago that I wrote the 100ths are soon upon us…and now, a little more than four years later, it is time. Not to let it go…but to let it rest…there is more to follow…but for now, allow me this chance for quiet thoughts…to rejoice in today’s silence…some regeneration…but a few more lines please…

…In August 2018  I visited here at the Menin Gate, bringing Rosemary to this and all the other places that I have experienced. Vimy…Thiepval…Spoilbank, and more. I have mentioned, many times, searching for peace in the chaos…I have found new ways, new designs, new messages…I have become more aware. I have invited connection…and it has provided. There is symbolism here, there is metaphor…there is peace in this chaos. One needs to let it in…

If the Great War teaches us anything, it is that it continues to provide its lessons…It offered me the chance to find a voice and I accepted…I can only hope that in some small way I have, through my clatterings, found the voices of those with whom I have visited whilst searching for my peace.

In August last year Rosemary and I stayed in Ieper (Ypres) and discovered a kindred spirit…Elodie…whose similar taste in music offered another chance at reclaiming the peace I sought. Through Elodie, we discovered Bon Iver. I was connected immediately. Again this morning, at 8:22 a.m., its words came to visit once again…I have searched for its meaning…you can too…It is, for Bon Iver, an awakening of understanding…it is a metaphor of my journey…to the light of the morning…peace in the chaos…if we let it in…

To all those who served…We all have a voice.

Thank you!

Previously published Pipes of War website, 11 November 2018

And the leaves of the tree…

A circular sign atop a street sign-post. The colourful red, white and black sign features a red maple leaf and two red poppies. The sign reads "Memorial Avenue Lest We Forget".
Memorial Avenue sign topper, Shelbourme Street, Victoria, B.C. Placed in commemoration of Great War Memorial tress rededicated 2018.
P. Ferguson image, October 2018.

…were for the healing of the nations
Revelations XXII.2

Today we gather our thoughts before the day ahead. Tomorrow…what will we feel…what is to be…?

Still – this day, is a chance for gathering our thoughts before the morrow…it is a chance to pause previous to the emotions of the current ending. I often speak of regeneration in these places of conflict…finding peace in this former chaos, finding ourselves amongst those who have been…and remain. Knowing too that a bit more than twenty years after this peace, the chaos returns…Lucifer again amongst the tumult of all survivor’s memories and their children’s new war…a second world war, does not pass this day unrecognized.

In search of the Great War’s peace I have wondered what might be found to add to these clatterings of mine? Today the words were found…thanks to another….one soldier, one mother who chose her son’s inscription in search of peace from this chaos. Today one image was found…lest we forget…here at home.

Laura Hoare chose the biblical inscription that leads our day. It is the focus for our interests after the Great War…healing…rebuilding…memorialization…hope…closure. Laura’s son, Captain Richard Lennard Hoare (12th London Regiment “The Rangers”) died  on the first day of the Somme 1 July 1916 and is buried at Gommecourt British Cemetery No. 2, Hebuterne, France…and though I have not been…I will go…one day…not this day…soon…its about healing.

Previously published Pipes of War website, 10 November 2018

ADDENDUM (27 MAY 2026)

And so we are here, this my second soul I promised to visit some eight years ago…now upon this place of Gommecourt and like Agny, I shall be telling this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence.

Commonwealth War Graves marker of Richard Lennard Hoare.
Captain Richard Lennard Hoare.
P. Ferguson image. May 2026.

Kin and Kindling

A wooden poppy cross sits in front of a stain glass window. Partial lettering can be read on the window "And Men of the...the Western Front". A portion of a blue wreath sits beside the cross.
Poppy cross at St. George’s Memorial Church, Ieper (Ypres), Belgium.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

…each day

It’s about loss…a familiar theme to the tracks of war…along the fields, the woods, the towns. Too many memorials…nearly one per town…too many headstones…row on row… too many lives…so many /so few memories. Rust, blood and petals.

Repeatedly I remind myself that my visits to this peace were once the chaos of another’s every day. I walk alongside the landscapes once familiar to ancestors. They are gone now…the soldiers – their mothers, their fathers, from either side of many languages.

And though I will remember each day these paths of kin and kindling I understand that this generation, I speak, has provided notes to my letters to my words. I can never repay them other than to continue walking this crimson ground to find their souls, their place, their peace.

Rest now dear brother, dear sister…each day.

—————0—————

…and because loss means something different to each of us…

[Chris Cornell – Nothing Compares to You]

Previously published Pipes of War website, 23 September 2018

…and now we have been

A knitted woollen poppy flower with stem and message rests again a metal railing at the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres. Names appear on panels in the background.
Woollen poppy upon the Menin Gate Memorial.
British Legion Great Pilgrimage 1928 – 2018.
P. Ferguson image, 8 August 2018.

Thread Fourteen

…and now we have been…and we have returned.

The landscapes of France and Flanders…London…have offered of themselves…their connections to us. We have rediscovered, found, observed and, above all, we have become connected. In finding the threads between the thimbles and needles we have bore witness the fabric of history…perhaps patchwork…but ours for all time.

There will be more visits, more patches to find. Some pieces will be easy paths of discovery – the information presented to us, others will only be revealed through our searching. In assembling these pieces each stitch becomes our own. The global quilt of history is there for all to see, but it is for you to discover how it is made.

…and now we have been… Words not lost upon us. We are well, we are safe, we are not hurt. Unlike so much of what we study…we have returned.

—–END OF SPOOL—–

Previously published Pipes of War website, 19 August 2018

Sound, light, colour…history

The Guards Chapel, London, England. Looking down the central aisle fitted with a deep blue carpet. Horizontal pews to wither side. Above the pews to the left and right, the Guard's colours hag from the wall. In the background the golden area of the chapel with altar.
The Guards Chapel, London was hit by a V-1 flying bomb in 1944.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

Thread Thirteen

From Buckingham Palace Road we turn onto Birdcage Walk, bypassing the tourists who have lined up along the gates to view the Guards. Instead of joining the onlookers we choose instead to visit the Guards Chapel, badly damaged by a V-1 flying bomb attack in 1944.

A cobalt blue, lit vase sits on a stone base.
Candlelight within a blue vase at the Guards Chapel, London.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

Smaller Chapels to the Guards Regiments line the one wall and two candlelights glow within blue vases informing us that a particular Guards Regiment is on active duty…a reminder that there is conflict somewhere in this world  that has taken these lads from home.

Along a brick wall a Victorian/Edwardian fountain near to a stone marker blocked by a black and red plastic recycle bin.
A black recycling bin blocks the view of a historical marker.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

A brisk walk across St. James’s Park follows and we then change course and head towards Piccadilly. All the while I search for a chance to find something new. This day is unusual, as we find the end words of a message on a wall about a garden commemorating a site hit by the destruction of an attack during the Blitz. I stand looking upon this part message and choose to move the large black plastic recycle bin blocking the view out of the way. In an instant all is revealed…we have discovered something new at a site I have walked by so many times.

The bin removed reveals a white tablet inscribed with details of a World War Two attack.
The bin set aside reveals the marker’s lettering informing those who pass by what this site has endured.
The bin was returned to its position.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

A few short steps later we walk amongst the vendors at Piccadilly Market. From leather belts, vinyl recordings, souvenirs to origami (one will feel there should be peace cranes here), and then open our eyes to Christopher Wren’s church, St. James’s Church, Piccadilly.

St. James's Church its steeple reaching skywards. Below and barely visible the tent covers of the market.
St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, London.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

A sign tells us that this site was also hit in the Blitz and badly damaged. Within the church we find three Great War Memorials, as the notes from a fine piano sail through the building. The pianist keeps this journey’s soundtrack in motion. The dance across the keyboard, is thoughtful – classical – perfect…as movement after movement…leads us on our live documentary.

Inside St. James's Church a pianist plays at a Grand piano as light streams through the stained glass. The pianist plays in the altar area. It is a large area and one hopes that you can imagine the notes rising and falling within this space.
Light, colour and sound at St. James’s Church, London.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

All here today listen, the tourist, the resident, the unfortunate as the light passing through the coloured glass adds accent to the notes that rise and fall. We stand within the church’s history…a people’s history…as the palette changes with the sun’s movement and notes fade away to sleep…

——-SNIP——-

Previously published Pipes of War website, 17 August 2018

The Dust of Each Conflict

White roses in bloom at the tall pillared entrance to the Imperial War Museum, London.
The Imperial War Museum, Lambeth North, London.
The repository of collections that were first gathered during the Great War.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

Thread Twelve

The heat wave has relented and for much of the day we venture forward in the downpour. Rain-water bounces off the taut umbrella towards me managing to find those points at the neckline where it can scurry its chill down one’s back. Meanwhile, I attempt to skirt the roaring streams that run along the curbs in search of drains that attempt to gulp the waves as they come towards them. The drains and my improvised two-step are not successful.

Still one ought not to complain, soldiers and civilians endured much worse on active service and on the home front. Finding an overhang, I stand beneath hoping there may be an ebb to this tide, but not this tide. I carry on.

A shriveled leather glove affected by poison gas lies within a dome glass display case isolated from all other things.
Evidence of chemical warfare are illustrated at the Imperial War Museum with this shriveled glove having gone through such an attack. Damage to lung, eyes and skin was horrific.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

Arriving at the Imperial War Museum I seek out a few specific exhibits to snap, and then conduct a reconnaissance of the gift shops anticipating a volume or two to rest amongst others in a tall stack of reading to do. Though centenary titles continue to abound, we are starting to see interest in the immediate aftermath of this conflict that gave birth to the world as we know it today.

A sign from the Western Front. Brown with white letters it has much evidence of having been targeted hit with the aimed and hurtling debris of war.
A well fired upon Great War sign “Do Not Stand About Here”.
Imperial War Museum Collection.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018

Treaties, nations, political parties, demobilization, employment, veterans’ welfare, rehabilitation, prostheses, mental health, families, widows, memorialization and more. The Great War may have an end date with the armistice, 11 November 1918, but its after affects will continue…and then there will be another conflict…a Second World War with its own ramifications, its own openings and conclusions, but the dust of each conflict will never truly settle for years to come.

A soldier straddles the wall of the muddy tench. His boots within the mud he looks downward...we do not see his face but the top and rim of his helmet. He is wearing a trenchcoat.
A Great War soldier making his way through the wet and person clinging mud of the trenches.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

——-SNIP——-

Previously published Pipes of War website, 16 August 2018

When the World Stands Before Us

Exterior view of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Numerous visitors await entry as the familiar London taxis line-up to take visitors to other sites.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, Kensington, London.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

Thread Eleven

The entrance way of the Victoria and Albert Museum is crowded with visitors this August day, anxious to make their way towards their interests and expectations. Throughout the structure countless, precious items are exhibited. Cameras focus and snap on specific items, some objects hold visitors for lengthy terms while others are passed by in favour of something else.

The stunning stained glass windows of the Refreshments Rooms . The room is lavishly decorated with wonderful lights and ornamentation on the walls.
Detail of the Refreshment Rooms, Victoria and Albert Museum.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

We have returned here this day to enjoy tea and cakes in the Refreshments Rooms, part of the elder museum that I enjoy. It is here I can sit and imagine the visitors and staff, of former times, who have sat here to become refreshed. A chance to pause within the history. This day I have come here especially for the building’s ornamentations in situ, not within exhibition cases but part of the built structure itself.

A stairway at the Victoria and Albert lavishly decorated with bas-relief. The museum provides much for the eyes apart from the exhibitions.
The details we have come to see. The Victoria and Albert Museum.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018

We have returned to this entry way of world culture to a record of local names passed by in favour of the world alluring. Here amongst the seekers is the Great War Memorial to the staff of the Victoria and Albert Museum who did not return from that conflict. Set up by subscription of the whole staff in memory of their comrades 1920.

When the world stands before us…remember them well.

The Victoria and Albert Museum War Memorial records the names of their fallen with a laurel leaf at the top of the marble plaque. The plaque is installed near the entry and is near to a fine marble column.
The Great War Memorial to the staff of the Victoria an Albert Museum.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

The Victoria and Albert Museum Great War Memorial

J.P. Adams
H.F. Arnott
E. Biggs
A.A. Bunting
I. Callender
A. Clark
J. Fergusson
W. Ives
J.J. Lawes
A. McLean
C.G. Mills
W.F. Quickenden
G.C. Siordet
T.G. Stratford
W.T. Toomey
H. Wyer

——-SNIP——-

Previously published Pipes of War website, 15 August 2018

Paddington: A soldier and a bear

Statue of a soldier looking down at a letter. The soldier is wearing a helmet, heavy jacket known as a great coat and gas mask bag. The soldier's face appears thougthful.
Paddington Station’s soldier statue on Platform 1. Sculpture by Charles Sargeant Jagger MC.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

Thread Ten

From London Victoria we walk to Paddington Station, to visit a well-known bear and to revisit with a soldier statue. The latter created by Charles Sargeant Jagger MC as the Great Western Railway War Memorial. Jagger was an experienced Great War officer with the Worcestershire Regiment and was wounded on three occasions and awarded the Military Cross.

The soldier statue stands on Platform 1 alongside a wall within Paddington Station, with a letter in his hands. He is reading. This statue was the subject of a recent and most successful letter campaign with 21,439 letters written about and inspired by this work in bronze. The soldier continues to stand, he continues to read. Please look after this soldier.

The Great Western Railway War Memorial at Paddington Station. The soldier statue reading the letter framed by a white stone wall behind. He stands upon a plinth. There is a modern series of gates set up in front of the statue. Entry doors to either side of the memorial have the Royal Coats of Arms and another possibly relating to the City of London above the entries.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) War Memorial commemorates 3,312 men and women of the GWR who lost their lives in two world wars.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

Near to the soldier is a bench and a statue of Paddington Bear, a character created by Michael Bond and inspired by World War Two child evacuees. Bond himself survived an air raid in February 1943 when the building he was in collapsed killing 41 and injuring many others. Bond soon applied to the Royal Air Force, aged 17, but subsequently served with the Middlesex Regiment. Paddington’s famous tag reads, Please Look After This Bear.

Bronze statue of Paddington Bear. Unlike the cartoon he does not wear a jacket or boots. He wears a large address label and large floppy hat. He sits on a suitcase.
Paddington Bear statue, please look after this bear (and this soldier). Platform 1, Paddington Station, London.
P. Ferguson image, August 2018.

——-SNIP——-

Previously published Pipes of War website, 14 August 2018