Cenotaph – A Seafarer’s Tomb
Hello,
This week contains the 11th of November and it’s one of the few history dates I can recall from my studies as a teen. The 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month has a significant ring to it and in 1918 it was the time of the signing of the armistice between Germany and the Allied Forces which ended what was then called The Great War.
I was reading this week about that moment in a biography. An observer was looking out the window onto a London street as the news broke, first one young woman ran out the door of her office building and then she was joined by more and more as relief swept through the city. One in ten of the service-aged male population died, the relief and grief of the moment must have been overwhelming.
[image error]My word to mark the 11th is cenotaph and it’s one the sea gave us (and hence features in my book). Cenotaphs, large stone structures to act as memorials to the dead who lie elsewhere, were first created in ancient Greece. They were monuments to those lost at sea and were always erected on headlands overlooking the waves. The word is compounded from two Greek words – kenos (empty) and taphos (tomb) which makes tragic sense as the sea doesn’t always yield up the bodies of those she takes.
The most famous cenotaph in the U.K. stands in Whitehall, London since 1920 and was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens to commemorate all those who died in World War One at sea and on land. It was unveiled on the 11th of November 1920 – it’s a hundred years old this week. Within a week of its unveiling it had been visited by more than one million people and it was 10 feet deep in flowers.
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)
p.s. Many thanks to those of you who voted for the cover of “Words The Sea Gave Us” on AllAuthor. Voting has now closed.
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