Thursday Threads - ANZAC Day Reading

Here in the UK & parts of Europe are at the start of Thursday, those in the US & Canada are still (probably asleep) and those in Australia, New Zealand are approaching the end of Thursday. For those Down Under it has been a public holiday in honour of ANZAC Day. The day on which thanks and memory is given to those men and women who joined the various forces and played their part in the First World War.

Last year I spent 5 weeks in Australia and did manage to revisit the War Memorial in Canberra. I took lots of pictures and I am going to share just 2 with you here. The first shows the Austalian & New Zealand losses from just this one campaign. The War was to rage for a total of 4 years. A generation completely lost.

Australian War Memorial - Oct 2012
Taken  by Julie Goucher

Outside the main exhibition is the Wall of Honour. There listed are the names of every individual that was lost during the Great War.

Australian War Memorial - Oct 2012
Taken  by Julie Goucher

So, the question for this week's Thursday Thread is

"Have you ever visited a museum or exhibition that has stimulated your reading and if so what did you read and why"

One of the reasons I found this particular visit so special was that I spent the day with my Cousin and her young daughter. On this Wall of Honour is the name of my Cousin's Great Uncle, a man who lost his life during the Second World War, but his memory lives on because his sister, my Cousin's Grandmother has a photograph of her brother on her wall. As we looked for his name and then explained the details to young G, we were enabling the past to head into the future. I found that very moving, as I did seeing the names of my own family commemorated on this wall.

Stimulating my reading has of course happened as I explore the details of the regiments of those lost soldiers and read about the Gallipoli Campaign. Furthermore, I turn to my trusty & faithful companion

In Memoriam by Edward Thomas

"The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood

This Eastertide call into mind the men,

Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, 

should

Have gathered them and will do never again"