And when they fought, those soldiers in the Great War really did believe that it was "the War to end all Wars". Oh, if only it had been. I, too remembered my Great-Uncle John Thomas Hopkins, killed 95 years ago this October at Passchendaele, aged 21. And I looked around the service and gathering at the War Memorial this year and counted four friends who have sons the same age as mine, all four serving officers now and two due to go back to Afghanistan for second tours of duty in the next few months, one in highly dangerous advanced reconnaissance and the other working as an engineer, identifying hidden IUDs for later disposal by Bomb Disposal. My heartfelt prayer for this year was that they come through unhurt and that we somehow stop this relentless cycle of hatred and war.
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I, too remembered my Great-Uncle John Thomas Hopkins, killed 95 years ago this October at Passchendaele, aged 21.
And I looked around the service and gathering at the War Memorial this year and counted four friends who have sons the same age as mine, all four serving officers now and two due to go back to Afghanistan for second tours of duty in the next few months, one in highly dangerous advanced reconnaissance and the other working as an engineer, identifying hidden IUDs for later disposal by Bomb Disposal. My heartfelt prayer for this year was that they come through unhurt and that we somehow stop this relentless cycle of hatred and war.