Remembrance Day Service 2016 in Bangkok
The annual Remembrance Day Service at the British Embassy in Bangkok will be held at 10:50am on Sunday 13 November 2016.
The event will not only commemorate British, Commonwealth, and allied personnel, but all those who have been affected in all conflicts. It serves as a reminder that nations who fought so bitterly against each other can come together to promote peace and stability in the modern world.
If you would like to attend, please download and fill in the and then email to Remembrance.Bangkok@fco.gov.uk by 08 November 2016. Please include the full names of all those who are planning to attend. You will then be sent further information.
Sale of poppies
Poppies will be on sale for members of the public at the British Embassy (Wireless Gate) from Thursday 27 October until Sunday 13 November 2016.
History of the Poppy Appeal
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended. Civilians wanted to remember the people who had given their lives for peace and freedom. An American War Secretary, Moina Michael, inspired by John McCrae’s poem, “In Flanders’ Fields”, began selling poppies to friends to raise money for the ex-Service community. The Legion adopted the poppy for its fundraising in 1921 - and so the tradition began.
Poppy Factory In 1922 Major George Howson, a young infantry officer, formed the Disabled Society to help disabled ex-Service men and women from the First World War. Howson suggested to the Legion that members of the Disabled Society could make poppies, and the Poppy Factory was subsequently founded in Richmond in 1922. The original poppy was designed so that workers with a disability could easily assemble it and this principle remains today.
British Embassy Cenotaph
The names of 25 personnel who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country are inscribed on the Cenotaph in the grounds of the British Embassy, Bangkok. One such individual, Lt. William Reginald Dibb left a relatively peaceful life in northern Thailand while in service of the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation to return to England in order to join the Royal Field Artillery, a service in which he lost his life in France in 1918. This compilation was taken from a blog which was also dedicated to the loving memory of the writers’ mother, Malee Wattananikorn, Lt. William Reginald Dibb’s youngest daughter. She died on April 6th 2012 at the age of ninety-seven, in Bangkok, Thailand. Thai military personnel are commemorated on a Monument to those who lost their life.
Expeditionary Force
The Monument in Bangkok is a memorial to the Thai soldiers killed on the Western Front in World War I. It’s not widely known that Thailand deployed an expeditionary force to fight on the side of the Western powers during the Great War in Europe 1914 – 1919. At the northern edge of Sanam Luang near the National Gallery, there’s a neat garden with well trimmed hedges.
In the center stands a white four-sided structure topped with a chedi-like spire. The names of the 19 fallen service personnel are inscribed on the monument.
Further information
Follow British Ambassador Brian Davidson on twitter @brijdavidson Follow the British Embassy Bangkok on Twitter @ukinthailand and UK in Thailand Facebook