Remembrance Day

I took this photo in the summer of 2013 at the RAF Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, London. The memoral was built to commemorate the sacrifice of the 66,573 aircrew from Britain, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other parts of the Commonwealth.  The memorial was dedicated on 2012 June 28 be Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth as part of her diamond jubilee celebrations.

Wikipedia has this to say about the memorial:

Aluminium from a Royal Canadian Air Force Handley Page Halifax of No. 426 Squadron that had crashed in Belgium in May 1944 was used to build the roof of the memorial, which was designed to evoke the geodetic structure of the Vickers Wellington. The Halifax, LW682 OW/M, had been removed from a swamp in 1997 with three of the crew found still at their posts. They were buried with full military honours in Geraardsbergen and the remains of the aircraft were sent to Canada. Some of the metal was used for the restoration of a Halifax in Trenton, Ontario, and the rest was melted down by the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta. The Museum provided ingots for the memorial to commemorate the 10,659 of 55,573 Bomber Command aircrew killed during the war that were Canadian

Although we visited in summertime many months before Remembrance Day and not at a time when any official events were being held the memorial was strewn with poppies and cards of thanks.  Stirring stuff.