FEPOW Memorial Service 2021

Due to COVID regulations the service was attended by just 34 people, but it was streamed live on YouTube and can be watched via the following link at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48CypSL_Dvw and is still available to view.

The Ecumenical service was hosted by our parish priests, Fr Pat Cleary and Fr Denis Gallagher.  They were joined by the Anglican FEPOW Chaplain Rev Pauline Simpson, whose father was a FEPOW survivor.   She read the first lesson about reconciliation and led the prayers.  The invited speaker was to have been the Rt.Revd. Dr Michael Ipgrave, Anglican Bishop of Lichfield whose father had also been a FEPOW captured in Singapore and survived the appalling conditions.  Unfortunately COVID restrictions meant that he was unable to attend.  He very kindly sent an address of personal reflections to be read in his absence by Fr Pat.

The address

 “He [his father] was put to hard labour on the railway,” wrote the Bishop, “and experienced terrible conditions of deprivation, overwork and brutality there; he was fortunate enough to survive, but his health was permanently damaged, and I believe that what he went through deeply scarred him. How could it not?”. The full address can be found at here. Fr Pat’s reading can be heard after 22 minutes of the YouTube recording or you can listen to it by clicking here to download the file which you can then play.

The Captive’s Hymn

All the hymns were sung by the cantor Wendy Weal.    The Captive’s hymn, was composed by Margaret Dryburgh, Civilian Internee, in the Palembang ‘houses’ camp (Sumatra) in 1942 and first sung by herself, Shelagh Brown and Dorothy MacLeod at a Sunday service. Thereafter the hymn was sung by women every Sunday even throughout their later years in captivity when they encountered suffering and death all around them.  When, in 1943, some internees were repatriated from Palembang to Singapore, the hymn was taken with them and, as a result, it found fame in the camps there too. For more details and the words of the hymn please visit the website https://singingtosurvive.com/. The cantor can be heard after 38 minutes of the YouTube recording or you can listen to it by clicking here to download the file which you can then play.

Wreath Laying

As many surviving FEPOW and Internees are now too frail to attend, some relatives – members of different FEPOW organisations around the country - laid several wreaths on behalf of all who died in captivity as well as those who died in freedom. In order they were: Wymondham Parish Wreath; Royal British Legion (Wymondham); Catholic Women’s League (Services Committee); Malayan Volunteers Group (All Volunteer Forces); Taiwan POW Memorial Association; NFFWRA – National Federation of FEPOW Welfare Remembrance Association; Birmingham Association of FEPOW; CoFEPOW; JAVA 1942 Club and finally an Anchor wreath.  As a tribute to Allied personnel from other countries also commemorated here, a visual representation of their National flags in the form of roundels flanked the ABCIFER - Civilian Internees Association - banner draped over the Altar Rail.  In past years Attaches from these Embassies have laid wreaths to honour their countrymen.

Conclusion

The traditional bugle calls of Last Post and Rouse, or Reveille, were sounded by Jeremy Lightowler, and the two minute silence observed.   Then Peter Wiseman read the FEPOW Prayer and Kohima Epitaph.  Finally, Rev Pauline Simpson concluded the service by scattering poppy petals on a blue cloth represented the sea in front of the Memorial Books Cabinet, where many Naval personnel, POWs in Hellships and merchant seafarers lost in that vast ocean. This can be heard after 45 minutes of the YouTube recording or you can listen to it by clicking here to download the file which you can then play.

Epilogue

The Epilogue was given by Peter Wiseman, who started by reading this poem: Epitaph

Remember us; not by a day
Extolling war's horror and blight.
No prayers will restore us from clay;
No anthems will shorten death's night.

In the dust, we are brothers in dust,
Death treats us the same, friend and foe.
Our weapons are soon turned to rust,
On our graves, the same grasses grow.

Remember our youth at the dawn;
At twilight, remember our pain.
Plead not that we fought the good fight,
or we are all brothers of Cain.

Let the word prevail o'er the sword
And the lowly and meek have their say.
The future is yours - we are dead.
Remember us; not by a day.

by George Cocker

Although not a POW himself, George Cocker’s post-war poem resonates easily with FEPOW as it implores us to remember the war dead. Today, we don’t have the same urgency to forget acts of inhumanity to loved ones lost in captivity; but we do need to Remember them, as well as those who survived and died in freedom. The suggestions of ‘dawn’ and ‘twilight’ as ‘memory’ times lets us address these needs on our own terms. We can recall how fortitude bred resilience, inspired courage to endure their sufferings and gave them hope to sustain a vision of beauty in the future. Two minutes silence, once a year, is still hardly enough, but all the time we can spare. Its importance is as a token of OUR time which is all too short.

Through this Memorial service we have heeded the Unknown Warrior’s plea to “… Give memory to others…” and fulfilled the Kohima Epitaph’s demand to “Tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow we gave our today….” Their memory has been brought to mind and kept the flame of Remembrance burning brightly in this hallowed space. Here are “… those things they never knew in their last days: peace, quiet, and cleanliness amidst the cool soft air of prayer, in the presence of Him whose suffering was greatest of all….”

Remember too, that this church is a ‘Living Memorial’ to ALL WWII FEPOW and Civilian Internees of ALL faiths and none. It was built and paid for by those who loved and cherished their memory. Every service is a tacit action of remembrance.

It is our generation’s debt of honour to respect this: so GO!

“The future is yours: we are dead! REMEMBER US; not by a day.”

Do you have a FEPOW or Civilian Internee relation/Friend, please get in touch and remember them.

The Epilogue can be heard after 50 minutes of the YouTube recording or you can listen to it by clicking here to download the file which you can then play.

More details

The service is mentioned on the Diocesan website which can be found at https://www.rcdea.org.uk/wymondham-honours-the-far-east-prisoners-of-war/.

Photographs from the day can be found at the following link https://www.flickr.com/photos/dioceseofeastanglia/sets/72157719212980786/