Remembrance Day

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them."

The above poem is called "For the Fallen" by Lawrence Binyon. The words are written on many war memorials in the UK and said at many Remembrance Day gatherings in the United Kingdom.

In nearly every city, town or village in the UK there is a monument to the war-dead. No one really knows how many there are, but current estimates place the number at more than 60,000.

Hundreds of volunteers and a few dedicated staff at Britain's Imperial War Museum are working on a 10- year project to catalogue the monuments for posterity.

Many war memorials were decaying and not given a second glance. In 1988 the museum's director-general, Alan Borg, became concerned the monuments could one day be lost forever and no record of them would exist. He started the National Inventory of War Memorials.

So far around 27,000 memorials have been recorded. When the whole project is finished it is hoped the results will be available on the Internet. This enormous project to remember those who died in the wars took off not only because of the vast number killed but also because most of the dead were civilians and not professional servicemen.

Some war memorials can be slightly unusual; a small island in Barrow-in-Furness was presented to the town as a war memorial at the end of World War I (1914-18).

In keeping with British culture there is also a fair sprinkling of bus shelters dedicated to the war-dead, as well as playing fields and operating theatres.