Roll of Honour.

Inside the porch of St Nicholas Church in Brockenhurst, and protected from the weather, is this beautifully made Roll of Honour commemorating those from the village who gave their lives during both World Wars.

The village lost 51 young men in WW1 and 32 during WW2.

To put this in perspective - today Brockenhurst's Primary School can take a maximum of 206 children, which averages at 29 children per year group - so the village lost the equivalent of three classes in both wars.

It's a lot isn't it.
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Sometimes it's difficult for people to understand the importance of things like this, some people even think these small memorials have taken almost idolatrous symbolism, but they don't realise that they are merely a focus intended to help us all remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and those who were to come after them.


We are living that tomorrow, and I think these words apply to the world we are living in as much as it did then, and I think it's important that we pass on this message to our children so they can one day tell their children, otherwise the sacrifice and bravery of these men will have been in vain.
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Some people might also think this is a very small thing for a village to have to commemorate their dead, but St Nicholas has its own secret - the churchyard is the home to a Commonwealth War Memorial and is where almost 100 ANZAC troops that died in the nearby hospital during WW1 are buried.

There are pictures of the memorial here and here.
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