Volume 1, Issue 4
NEWSLETTER
December 2015
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How Festive Spirit Halted
Great War
by Neil Griffithsm (Edited story)
NINETY ONE years ago tonight, a group of bedraggled
Scottish soldiers, Cameronians mostly from Lanark,
spotted Germans clambering into the open with no
sign of hostile intent.
They were on the Western Front, near Lille. Baffled,
they held their fire but the Germans came right up to
the trench and offered cigars. It was 1914 and the
near-mythical Christmas truce had begun, when men
laid down their weapons, shook hands and embraced
the season's message of peace on earth.
If it seems incredible to us, to the men themselves it
seemed beyond comprehension.
The huge armies dug in and watched each other as
close neighbours, able to hear one another's chatter
and smell their cooking.
The final attack by the British, on December 19, at
Ploegsteert Wood, ended in a local armistice in which
both sides helped each other bury their dead.
On Christmas Eve, frost hardened the mud and froze
the pools. When night fell, almost simultaneously, the
Germans mounted trees on their parapets and lit
candles and lanterns.
Thousands of British watched in fascination as the
wondrous sight was joined by the distant haunting
sound of men singing Stille Nacht.
Continued on Page 2
SPECIAL EVENT
"A BIT OF NOSTALGIA"
NEW YEARS PARTY & DANCE 9PM - 1AM
get your tickets early - limited seating
tickets $15 at bar
A Carol from Flanders
by Frederick Niven (1878-1944)
This poem recounts the story of the spontaneous 1914
Christmas truce along the lines of the Western front.
In Flanders on the Christmas morn
The trenched foemen lay,
the German and the Briton born,
And it was Christmas Day.
The red sun rose on fields accurst,
The gray fog fled away;
But neither cared to fire the first,
For it was Christmas Day!
They called from each to each across
The hideous disarray,
For terrible has been their loss:
"Oh, this is Christmas Day!"
Their rifles all they set aside,
One impulse to obey;
'Twas just the men on either side,
Just men — and Christmas Day.
They dug the graves for all their dead
And over them did pray:
And Englishmen and Germans said:
"How strange a Christmas Day!"
Between the trenches then they met,
Shook hands, and e'en did play
At games on which their hearts were set
On happy Christmas Day.
Not all the emperors and kings,
Financiers and they
Who rule us could prevent these things —
For it was Christmas Day.
Oh ye who read this truthful rime
From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day.
How Festival Spirit Halted Great War - Continued
THERE cannot have been a moment like it in either the
history of war or in the performing arts. Every survivor
spoke of the abiding impact of that one carol.
In many cases the British responded with a carol of
their own, applause or calls for more. Almost always
the second was Tannenbaum. When the British sang O
Come All Ye Faithful the Germans accompanied with
the Latin version, Adeste Fideles.
Seaforth Highlanders, just to the north of Ploegsteert
Wood were, unusually, the first to begin the singing but
were "spellbound" with the returned carol. A Corporal
Ferguson led most of his company into no man's land
for cigarettes and handshakes - accompanied by calls of
"Fergie, Fergie?" so that the Germans imagined this to
be a Highland greeting and politely repeated it.
Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders near Armentieres
initially agreed that only two from each side should
meet but quickly changed their minds.
Christmas Day dawned calm, still and very cold. Services
were held but the singing was muted for fear
Canadian soldiers enjoying a few drinks on Christmas
Day at the front, Ortona, Italy, 25 December 1943.
Photo: Lieut. Frederick G. Whitcombe / Canada. Dept. of
National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-163936
Remembrance Day
Service at
Carveth Care Centre
November 11th 2015
that the night before's truce was an aberration, but the
process quickly repeated itself. Almost all accounts
suggest the Germans initiated the moves. The day was
spent identifying and burying the dead.
The Rev Esselmount Adams, chaplain to the Gordon
Highlanders, organised a joint service in no-man's land
with prayers in German and English. Both sides wrote
home using phrases like "fairytale", "day of fiction" and
"extraordinary".
Rations and cigarettes were swapped even though the
British hated the German tobacco. Buttons and
regimental flashes were exchanged, the ultimate
souvenir being a pickel-haube (the spiked helmet).
By 1917 friendly meetings were unthinkable. By 1918
the Armistice had been signed and the memory of the
Christmas truce of 1914 slipped into legend, a moment
from the forgotten golden age when even the
participants suspected it never happened.
But it did happen - when man's fundamental decency
surfaced briefly in the midst of hell - and should never
be forgotten.
• Neil Griffiths is the press officer of the Royal British
Legion Scotland.
Source: Edinburgh News
Annie Poirier and "the
boys" at Carveth (Roehl,
Parrell, and Richard or
(maybe) Wynken, Blynken
and Nod)
(R.C.A.S.C.), displaying
toys which will be
presented to Dutch
children during a
Christmas party,
Nijmegen,
Netherlands, 20
December 1944.
NEW YEARS LEVEE -JAN. 1ST 2016
All Legion Members are invited
10am -Meet and Greet with MP, MPP & Mayor
11am- Ceremony and Naming of Honouree of the Year
Noon - 3pm - Light Buffet
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
December 11 – Billy Bridger Show 7 – 11:00
December 18 - Meat Draw starting at 5:00
December 18 – The Reasons 7 – 11:00 pm
December 31 - New Years Party - 9pm-1am
For more information go to the Legion Face Book page
or our Web Site www.rclbranch92.com
Remembrance Day Gananoque November 11th
Pictures by Lorraine Payette