King George Quotation

[Roy Evans]

Somewhere I've seen a quotation from King George very loosely along the lines of "British war graves circling the earth".

Can anyone give me the full quotation please?

Roy

[dfaulder]

"Never before in history have a people dedicated and maintained individual memorials to their fallen and in the course of my Pilgrimage, I have many times asked myself whether there can be a more total advocate of peace upon earth through the years to come, than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of War."

Thought to be drafted by Kipling for King George V

(taken from http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_kent_aidin.htm about 2/3rds down)://http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_kent_a...ut 2/3rds down)

[Roy Evans]

"Never before in history have a people dedicated and maintained individual memorials to their fallen and in the course of my Pilgrimage, I have many times asked myself whether there can be a more total advocate of peace upon earth through the years to come, than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of War."

Thought to be drafted by Kipling for King George V

(taken from http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_kent_aidin.htm about 2/3rds down)://http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_kent_a...ut 2/3rds down)://http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_kent_a...ut 2/3rds down)

Thanks for the speedy reply David, but that's not the one I had in mind!

Roy

[Tony Lund]

I have part of it, but there seems to a bit missing from the middle, hence the...... No idea where it came from though.

"We can truly say that the whole circuit of the earth is girdled with the graves of our dead..... and, in the course of my pilgrimage, I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth through the years to come, than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war."

King George V,

Flanders, 1922.

Tony.

[dfaulder]

"... For this, a generation of our manhood offered itself without question. And almost without the need of a summons. Those proofs of virtue, which we honour here to-day, are to be found throughout the world and its waters since we can truly say that the whole circuit of the earth is girdled with the graves of our dead. Beyond the stately cemeteries of France, across Italy, through Eastern Europe, passing over the holy Mount of Olives itself to the farthest shores of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from Zeebrugge to Coronel, from Dunkirk to the hidden wildernesses of East Africa.

But in this fair land of France which sustained the utmost fury of the long strife, our brothers are numbered, alas ! by hundreds of thousands. They lie in the keeping of a tried and generous friend, a resolute and chivalrous comrade in arms, who, with ready and quick sympathy ,has set aside for ever the soil in which they sleep, so that we ourselves and our descendants may for all time reverently tend and preserve their resting-places. And here at Terlinethun, the shadow of his monument almost falling across their graves, the greatest of French soldiers - of all soldiers – stands guard over them. And this is just, for side by side with the descendants of his incomparable armies, they defended his land in defending their own.

Never before in history have a people thus dedicated and maintained individual memorials to their fallen, and in the course of my pilgrimage, I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth through the years to come than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war. ..."

http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_debt1_p.htm (about 2/3rds down)

[Roy Evans]

Sorted!

Thank you both.

Roy