Robert Buckland Weblog

In 1959, the last veteran of the American Civil War died, ninety-eight years after its start.  Fifty years on, the last veteran of the Western Front, Harry Patch, has died.  The photography of the Civil War is striking and celebrated, but it ended about ten years before Edison recorded sound for the very first time, so the recollections that we have on audio tape and film are those of very old men looking back to a bygone age.  Although radio and TV postdated the Great War, there is a significant body of contemporary recordings of those who took part.  Thanks to the BBC’s mammoth series of the mid 1960s, “The Great War”, we have footage of middle aged men recalling with clarity the events of key battles such as The Somme and Jutland.  Watching that series, I am always struck by the freshness of their accounts; the War did not feel as if it had happened centuries earlier.

Although Mr Patch was Europe’s oldest man at the time of his death, his decision to only start talking about his experiences at a very late stage in his life lent a freshness to his account that was extraordinary.  The aim of every veteran who has given witness to their experiences is to ensure that the lessons of the trenches will not be forgotten; let’s hope that this will be so.  When a twenty year old undergraduate asked me this week what the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was all about, it was brought home to me that what were great events to one generation can quickly become forgotten details to the next.

A symbol of the gradual evolution of the British way of life is the Swindon Mela, which has become a regular feature in my calendar.   Once again, the Old Town Gardens were blessed with fair weather and large crowds to take in the sounds and sample the tastes of south Asia.  The bonds of family and friends help ensure above all else that Britain’s links with the nations of the sub-continent remain strong and important.  To those who say that different communities should live in isolation from each other,  I say: you are wrong.  Isolation breeds ignorance, ignorance leads to hostility and hostility leads to strife.  All I ask for is the Rule of Law to be accepted by everyone who lives in our country, whoever they are.

Our willingness to accept differing cultures and traditions as part of our way of life should not be based upon a post imperial guilt complex.  I do not believe that assuming a position of inferiority is necessary or desireable.  As Oscar Hammerstein wrote for one of the characters in “Oklahoma!”, “I don’t say I’m better than anybody else, but I’ll be damned if I ain’t just as good!”.

A calm and sunny Friday evening ensured a good turnout at the True Heart Inn in Bishopstone for the presentation of cheques to those charities involved in the Wakely Midnight Walk last month by the Mayor of Swindon, Cllr David Wren.  Swindon MS Therapy Centre managed to raise over £6000, which was well in excess of its original target.  Thoughts started to stray towards the Swindon Half Marathon.  Can I do it?