Remembering the innocent

Stephen Pinker may well be right in saying that we now stand less chance of a violent death than at any time in our archaeologically accessible history but this doesn't mean that violent death is a thing of the past and that there are no more innocent victims. We might pretend that our targeting is so precise that we can safely carry out extra-judicial killings without undue collateral damage but the mealy mouthed euphemisms can't hide the fact that this is just a pretense. 

It's now the centenary of the start of the Great War, a full explanation of which remains beyond me but I am inclined to see its roots in a colonial squabbling over territory which wouldn't be necessary these days when the rich and powerful can simply buy up and control the means of production wherever on the planet it might happen to be, and for the next 4 years we'll no doubt get many reminders of the particular events of a century ago. Among these, on the 16th of December this year, will be the bombardment of Scarborough in which 18 people lost their lives. All were civilians and one of them, John Shields Ryalls, was only 14 months old.

Since our dog died a couple of months ago I've taken to wandering out with a camera in my pocket rather than a selection of dog biscuits and plastic pooh bags and a fortnight ago I was surprised to find that a memorial to those that died, the first to die on British soil in the Great War, had been erected in the local cemetery.

A little bit further down the path you can find the grave young John shares with another of the victims, his nanny.

A closer look at the inscription at the bottom reveals what I think is a message of true faith.

"Oh what a happy life was this,

to my dear baby given, 

just one short year of earthly bliss,

and all the rest in heaven"

Now I can certainly respect that faith, even if I'm not able to share it, but a week or so after I'd taken this picture I discovered that the construction of the memorial had been part of a larger project which involved identifying the graves of all the victims and putting up new plaques to show where they are.

Not wishing to annoy any of the people involved in this act of remembrance I do think they should have shown a little more respect to those who decided upon, and no doubt paid for, the original inscription.