GODET, Lennock de Graaff, Lieut, BVRC, to France on active service Aug. 1917, (Lieut. as of 1918, April 1), died 1918, June 1, with Royal Flying Corps, machine brought down in flames, born 1896, December 10, in Paget, son of Frederick Lennock Godet and Maud, née Olmsted.-A Bermudian Lost in Action in the Great War.

In these days of globalisation, one organisation on the Island, the Bermuda War Veterans' Association has decided to localize the symbol of their annual Tag Day, in 2010 being the November 5, and has replaced the old "Red Poppy" with a tag of the endemic flower, the "Bermudiana" (Sisyrichium Bermudiana). The poppy, of course, has long been used as a symbol of sleep and death, in the first instance because the drug opium that can be extracted from the plant, and the second because the common poppy is blood-red. The red-flowered Corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas, became the symbol of remembrance after the slaughter of the First World War, or Great War of 1914-18, which ended at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918.

In ancient times, the poppy also symbolised the possibility of resurrection after death. The Corn poppy is a common wild flower in Europe and appearing in many battlefields after the guns fell silent, it was chosen as the symbol for Remembrance Day, which falls in many places, including Bermuda, on November 11, a national holiday. The poppy is the symbol of the Royal British Legion that has some rights over its worldwide sale. The Bermudiana, which in the past adorned the sticker of the BWVA, has been adopted by that charitable organisation as a local symbol for its Tag Day. The Bermudiana tag will thus be given out on November 5 to donors for their support of local returned veterans and their spouses.

The Bermuda War Veterans' Association was founded in 1919, a year after the First World War or Great War ended, to support returning Bermuda servicemen, in much the same way for example as a "Returned Servicemen Association" was at that time set up in Australia and New Zealand. However, the BWVA was established for returnees of the white regiment, the Bermuda Volunteer Rifles Corps; a similar self-help group was apparently not officially founded for the black returnees of the Bermuda Militia Artillery. In recent times, that has changed and the BWVA now supports surviving returned veterans and their spouses across the social spectrum. At present, the Association is providing support for some 21 veterans, or their widows, with financial support in excess of $160,000 a year.

The last phrase should include "widowers", as 29 Bermudian women served overseas in the Second World War (1939-1945). Be that is it may, none of the overseas veterans of the First World War are with us any longer and time is marching on for those of the Second. The life of the BWVA may thus have its own end-date in a decade or so, though we do have veterans of the Korean, Vietnam and other recent wars, and potentially from ongoing conflicts, such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

The history of involvement of Bermudians in overseas conflicts, as serving personnel, starts in 1895 with the formation of the black corps, the Bermuda Militia Artillery, followed shortly thereafter by the creation of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps.

These companies were respectively the gunners and the foot soldiers, although some men served in other services during the wars. Delving back to 1612, the "homeland security" of Bermuda was undertaken by local militiamen, manning the many small forts along the coast of the island. At the beginning of the 1700s, British military regiments took over that role, particularly after 1776 and the ultimate independence of the former continental colonies, now part of the United States. The formation of the BMA and the BVRC in the 1890s brought Bermudians back to the defence of the island and their eventual participation in battlefields overseas.

In that last regard, let us remember those who lost their lives on overseas service, the number being one woman and 124 men in the two World Wars and Korea. Two-thirds of the men were lost in the Great War and most rest in foreign fields, some graves perhaps never visited by any Bermudians. In the trench warfare of 1914-18, men killed between the lines were often not recovered for some weeks and thus their identity was often lost, some "dog tags" being made of paper. The grave of one Bermudian in France is inscribed "Believed to be the remains of", due to the difficulties of identification created by the nature of that war. Some 240 Bermuda gunners of the BMA were on service with the Royal Garrison Artillery in the Great War, while about half that number of the BVRC became foot combatants with the Lincolnshire Regiment. Another grouping of Bermudians, difficult to calculate exactly, joined services such as the Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force.

In the Second World War, the Bermuda Militia Infantry and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers were added as companies on the local roster and men from those groups, the BMA and the BVRC, signed up for overseas duties in a variety of services, excepting possibly, submarines, but including US and Canadian forces. Thirty-five would lose their lives while in foreign places, including one woman. One Bermudian was lost in Korea. These were the veterans of those conflicts who returned not to their Bermuda homes and families.

Several hundred veterans did return in 1945, to join those from the earlier worldwide conflict. In this year of 2010, their numbers have naturally dwindled, but those still with us are of the age when assistance is often needed, medically for example, or where their spouses live on but are in need of financial assistance.

The BWVA is now expending over $160,000 a year in support of returned veterans and their relations. That aid to those who could have given their all for us in the wars is made possible largely through the generosity of Bermudians, residents and even visitors, on the occasion of the Association's annual Tag Day.

So this year on November 5, wake up and smell the Bermudianas and give generously to support the war veterans, whose honourable overseas service helped to lay the foundations for the freedoms you enjoy today.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480