Lest we Forget: a contrast

July 7th to 12th 1916

4,000 poppies adorned the foyer at Ysgol Brynhyfryd

In our most comfortable world of 100s of satellite TV channels, two car families, anything goes hedonism and education past the age of the draught, we can never fully imagine the constant convulsive thunder of artillery, the lice, the rats, the iron rations, the trench foot, the gas, the fevers, the government propaganda and leadership incompetency in the field of combat. We probably cannot contemplate the futility of it all nor the fear before going over the top.

How did this Ruthinian manage to head of the parade, alongside the lord lieutenant?

We can commemorate those who died or were injured and that is exactly what we've done in Rhuthun/Ruthin this weekend. There's an exhibition in the Library. Ysgol Brynhyfryd hosted a parade and 4,000 poppies, one for each soldier of the 38th Welsh Infantry Division the Royal Welsh Fusiliers known to have died 100 years ago at the Battle of Mametz Wood on the Somme, between July 7th and 12th, 1916.

Fittingly, the parade through town started and finished just before the rain stopped. A good turnout for the parade but typically, as is nowadays often the case for Rhuthun, few turned up to support the event at Brynhyfryd (on Saturday) and even fewer bothered to get to the Library.

Activities at Ysgol Brynhyfryd included a wartime singalong, led by two 'soldiers'. Songs included such favourites as 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary'

Neither can we imagine the home-coming telegrams telling family and sweethearts of pointless death. To fight on the front, you had to be a minimum of 19 but younger men, barely men at all, lied about their age.

And, as something of a complete counterpoint, from 12.00 noon on the same day as the parade, there was the ninth annual Vale of Clwyd Ale Trail. Packed so-called 'booze buses' took willing drinkers at £7 a ticket every 15 minutes along a clockwise tour of the Vale's inns. When it first started, it cost £2.50, then the price of a pint and buses ran every half-an-hour. Given the numbers now involved, it is amazing that so few participants cross the fine line between high spirits and misconduct. But some do. How many even realised there was something much more sober that day? How many cared?

The passengers were of similar age to the soldiers on the Somme, yet they were 100 years apart. How different things were. The men and boys of Mametz Wood gave their lives so that we have the freedom to do such things as this giant pub crawl.

Yet, it's not as if we they actually died to protect the way we live today. The war was actually needless and Britain was sucked into it without really trying not to be. As for life back then, Britain was still a servile state, run by aristocrats who dressed for dinner. It was far from being fully democratic. Before the war, only men could vote. It was only towards the end of the war that house-holding women over 30 were enfranchised.

Meanwhile, 100 years ago, there was no bus service in the Vale of Clwyd, let alone one that jumped from pub to pub. Motor buses didn't arrive till after the war.