The Ubon and Embassy
Remembrance Ceremony's 2017
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The Remembrance Ceremony in Ubon starts earlier each year . We timed our arrival for around 09:30 hrs to allow fifteen minutes to settle into our seats. Representing OCA this year were Erwin (Jimmy) James and wife Jean, Jim Curtis, Neville and Mark Wareham and your reporter John Hamnett. Accompanying our party were the wife of Ray Withnall, Khamma Sroikham and a Red Cross representative Kayala Sathien. The rollover image shows Jim Curtis . |
Ray Withnall is an honoury member of the OCA group on Facebook. He's researching the FEPOW history of Ubon and has unearthed quite a bit of that history. Unable to attend this year because his Mother is poorly, we welcomed his wife into our group . A welcome surprise for us as they hadn't informed us of their coming, was the appearance of Frank Moggach and wife Elsie. So our party grew in size. We were directed to sit immediately behind the Governor and his party of officials. VIP treatment, an honour indeed. |
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09:45 was the time for the first speech in Thai by two English speaking Master of Ceremonies. Mike Chapman's involvement would come later. They announced a procession of organisations who proceeded to lay their wreath's. The Thai Military, Veteran's Associations, The Ubon Red Cross, Nurses and Cadets amongst others. There was an interlude when the Orchestra played for us and then the Governor arrived at about 10:30. At 10:38 the Governor accompanied his escort to lay his wreath at the monument. |
He was followed by Jean James who layed the OCA wreath. Julan Strathearn layed a wreath on behalf of the Farang of Ubon. The American Legion came next and then the FEPOW wreath was laid. Finally Kalaya Sathien laid a wreath for the Red Cross of Mukdahan. Pictures of all the wreath laying will appear in the slideshow below. The element missing that always makes this occasion extremely emotional, was the bagpipes. Neil Campbell has played twice at this Ceremony, hopefully he'll be attending the 2018 Ceremony. |
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After the wreath laying we found ourselves ahead of schedule. The Thai's now fully understand the concept of two minutes silence at the 11th hour, something which took a few years of educating. So the Orchestra was called upon again to run down the minutes to eleven o'clock. Mike Chapman (pictured) took the microphone to explain to those assembled, the reason and importance of the two minutes silence. When he called for it, the mourner's for that's what we were, observed it impeccably until the Bugler sounded the Last Post. |
| We had arrived at the closing stages of the Ceremony, and the Governor rose again to walk to the Monument of Merit. His last duty of the Ceremony was to light the 'Lantern of Peace' and present a bouquet to a descendant of Little Mother Ubon. The local Press and other photographers (myself included), had jostled amongst ourselves to get good viewpoints for our pictures throughout the proceedings. But as this picture demonstrates, the compositions sometimes left a lot to be desired. |
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| The picture above shows the final act of the Ceremony as the participants come together for a rendition of 'Auld Lang Syne'. The three disabled veterans at the front fought in the Vietnam war. The women in the traditional Thai dress on the right of centre in the front row, are descendants of Little Mother Ubon. |
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And then it's the scramble for pictures as different groups want their photo taken with each other. The relatives of Little Mother Ubon usually make a bee-line for our party as they've taken a shine to us over the years. I'll show that particular shot in the slideshow below but this picture is proof indeed that the Maggoch's did attend the ceremony. The rollover shows the OCA wreath in situ. Next year our Poppy wreath will be restored to us. Hand made by Mrs Strathearn, it's a work of art and something we want to keep for as long as we can.
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| The Ubon Ceremony ended but the story of this trip continued. After some social time with our Ex-Pat friends in Ubon our party went their seperate ways. Neville and Mark Wareham took the evening flight to BKK for they had an important appointment on the morrow. They laid a wreath for OCA at the British Embassy Remembrance Ceremony where Neville continued his PR exercise for support for our April 2018 Post Crown 50th Celebration. It seems the BKK Pipe Band miss the piping from our very own Neil Campbell. |
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Unfortunately Neil and Belinda are unable to attend the 2018 Post Crown Road Celebration which is sad, as we would have taken the opportunity to remember those who lost their lives on Crown. Hopefully they will attend the 2018 Ubon Remembrance Ceremony and will play the 'Lament' at Ubon and on the Airfield. But that's quite far into the future so anyone toying with the idea of joining us in April 2018, I can tell you that our friends in Khok Samlan are working hard to provide us with a visit to remember. Don't miss it! |
Slideshow
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