Bayeux War Cemetery is the final resting place of over 4,000 people, over ten percent of whom are German and buried alongside allied enemy forces. The peacefulness of the cemetery is perhaps a good reminded of the futility of war.
Just as last year, I helped draw up the Order of Service, which on request of one of the organisations involved included a German segment in which “Der Gute Kamerad” was read and played. Afterwards, we invited the public to reflect during Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” This was something of a childhood dream come true: when I was young, most cathedral choirs did not accept girls. I always wanted to sing in such a choir and dreamt about how I might be accepted in one. If only I had known that, years later, I I would join fifteen world-class trebles from Christ Church, Oxford, to sing to Second World War veterans and other VIPs.
“Hallelujah,” with The Choristers of Worcestershire College Oxford, directed by Caius Lee, and accompanied by Staff Sergeant Bandmaster Andrew Hall of the British Army Band Tidworth.
The wreath-laying was especially moving. A chorister began the ritual by placing a wreath for his ancestor, buried at Bayeux War Cemetery. The formal wreath laying ended when veterans themselves placed wreaths. I found it moving to sing “You’ll never walk alone” after seeing the veterans struggle to walk in order to honour their companions of over eighty years ago. They have not been forgotten, nor do the veterans walk alone.