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Tag: Military

Service leaves a mark — on places, on people, on how we remember. This tag gathers human-interest stories and timely news where the armed forces and remembrance meet: chaplain-led committals of ashes, veterans’ parades turned quiet tributes, regimental gardens, unit...

Royal Naval Ashes Committal: Portsmouth

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The Royal Navy offer a committal service for ex service personnel who service in the Navy. This is guidance for the Portsmouth Service. Arrangements can be made for a ceremony, which includes a short religious service to be carried out at Spithead Portsmouth at a point near to Spitbank Fort. Committals are conducted by a Naval Chaplain. […]

Scattering Ashes – Spitfire/Lysander/Magister WWII Plane

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What could be more iconic than ashes scattered from a classic WW2 aircraft. The airfield based in Bedford in the Midlands is ideally located for the while country. With a choice of three classic plane it will be a send off to remember… Cost – £4000 Iconic British WW2 fighter. Our genuine WW2 Spitfire Mark […]

A Bible Reading Suitable for an Old Sailor

Psalm 107 – A Reading for Naval and Maritime Ash Scattering Naval Chaplaincy at Portsmouth, were kind enough to share their guidance for families wishing to honour a loved one connected with the sea. Many people who served in the Royal Navy or Merchant Navy wish for their ashes to be scattered in the same […]

Veteran’s Ashes Parachuted in for a final farewell

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Remembrance Sunday Remembrance Sunday is an important time of reflection. It has been 101 years since the guns fell silent at the end of the ‘Great’ War, 75 years since D-Day and this year also saw the 75th anniversary of the ill-fated operation Market Garden, the offensive to capture strategic bridges in the Netherlands, that […]

How permanent is permanent – when a scattering ashes location changes use

Bill Priddy scattered the ashes of son Will at the Royal Citadel in Plymouth, he chose to scatter his son’s ashes at that spot as his son was based there at the time of his death. Will – a veteran of one tour of Iraq – died in 2005 in a car crash on Salisbury […]

A Sailor’s Farewell Poem: Crossing the Bar

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If you’re looking for words or a verse for an ash scattering ceremony fit for an old sailor or anyone with a love of the sea, you could do far worse than the timeless poem Crossing the Bar by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This beautiful and deeply symbolic piece is often chosen for sea burials, ashes […]

Royal Navy’s Order of Service for Interring Ashes at Sea

Scattering Ashes at Sea: Honouring a Naval Career Scattering the ashes of a loved one at sea is a poignant and fitting tribute, especially if they had a naval career. Whether they served in the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy, acknowledging their service in the ceremony can add a meaningful touch. However, you may […]

Committal of Ashes into the Sea by the Royal Navy

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Royal Naval Ashes Service at Sea The Naval Chaplaincy Service carries out Committals at Sea Ceremonies for Naval Service personnel. The Royal Naval Chaplaincy Service undertakes committals of ashes at sea from our Base Ports in Scotland on the Clyde (Faslane), Plymouth (Devonport) and Portsmouth. There is no charge for the committal. Eligibility is determined on […]

Student uses grandfather’s ashes to create a night sky

Final-year photography project incorporating cremated remains into art Death and art seem to have a long relationship from the medieval depiction of what happens to sinners in hell to Damien Hirst’s animals in formaldehyde. There are a few artists that offer for people to have ashes incorporated into art. However here we have a final […]

An urn for an old Sailor and the MODs exasperating institutionalised culture of secrecy: Part 3 the final episode

This is the final episode of the mini-series. The story so far – I want the measurements for a box. The Ministry of Defence have said I can’t have it, actually when you put it like that it this doesn’t sound very interesting does it? Okay. This is a story about one mans valiant attempt […]

An urn for an old Sailor and the MODs exasperating institutionalised culture of secrecy: Part 2

MOD Madness Hello, last week I posted the start of a small saga in relation to me trying to find the specification for urns the Royal Navy need for committals at sea. Here is the post. I split it into three parts to make a bit of a story of it – also it goes […]

An urn for an old Sailor and the MODs exasperating institutionalised culture of secrecy

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This a story I will tell in three parts and it is the documentation on my conversation with the Ministry of Defence MOD, relating to a printed specification for an urn, although my title is ‘slightly’ leading I wonder if you will share my view? Halfway through last year I got a call from a […]

Flag retirement & retiring ceremonial colours – respectful disposal explained

The forgotten ritual of retiring flags and ceremonial colours On the blog we discuss many aspects of the cremation ashes ceremony including the dignity and the meaning. This is a story that comes from Richmond, Kentucky USA and it sparked my thinking on logical extensions from memorialising human ashes to that of a nations symbols – […]

National Memorial Arboretum ashes policy

National Memorial Arboretum’s policy on cremation ashes

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National Memorial Arboretum Policy on Cremation Ashes The National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, England is a national (as in UK wide) site of remembrance for members of all armed forces. It gives its purpose as – “The National Memorial Arboretum honours the fallen, recognises sacrifice and fosters pride in our country. It is a spiritually uplifting place […]

Medieval fashion – ashes launched from a Trebuchet or Catapult

Want Your Ashes Thrown from a Medieval Catapult? (Trebuchet Tributes) Flung from a mighty medieval war engine, soaring skyward to a drumbeat… then woosh — ashes drifting like silver confetti. Not everyone’s cup of mead, granted. But for battle-reenactors, engineers, and history buffs, the trebuchet has undeniable drama. Before we charge the battlements, a reality […]

Ex Nazi to have his ashes scattered where he was a PoW

Ex-Nazi POW’s Ashes to Be Scattered in Scotland A German soldier left his estate to a Scottish the village of Comrie, Perthshire and is to have his cremation ashes scattered there where he was a prisoner of war camp during WWII. Heinrich Steinmeyer was a soldier in the Wafhen SS and was captured fighting to […]

Shrapnel found in War Hero after cremation

Family handed back metal fragments decades after wartime injury An old war veteran from Exeter passed recently, he had suffered from a war wound all his adult life after standing on a landmine in France in 1944. He told the family he had a ‘bullet’ in the knee. He didn’t complain about it, but just […]

Cremation ashes of US Soldiers – government admit to shameful behaviour

Controversy over how military remains were disposed and policy changes Here is a news story that is sad, shocking (depending or your stance) and thought provoking. When I read some of the headlines (and there has been quite a furore) it appeared that the US military had been landfilling the cremated remain of service personnel […]

Paratrooper’s Ashes Scattered Over Arnhem in Fitting Farewell

Paratrooper’s Ashes Scattered Over Arnhem in Fitting Farewell This is a great story of paratrooper, veteran of WWII and subsequent conflicts, having his ashes scattered at the site of one of the famous locations in airborne military history. Ernest Venus passed away earlier this year and his daughter Joan Venus Evans thought it would be […]

Burying Cremation Ashes at a War Grave owned by the War Grave Commission

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Burying Cremation Ashes at a War Grave: A Practical Guide When considering the interment of ashes in a war grave maintained by the CWGC, there are important rules and processes to follow. While the idea of placing ashes beside a wartime casualty may be emotionally compelling, the legal and regulatory framework is quite specific. What […]

A service for Royal Navy who ‘Cross the Bar’

Committal of ashes to sea – A service for Military personal including Royal Navy & Royal Marines ‘crossing the bar‘ Every Seaman you ever speak to will tell you the sea runs right to their very core of their soul, for many the image of a burial at sea looms large in the imagination. Whilst burials at sea […]

Not allowed alongside fallen comrades…

Vietnam refuses request to scatter a French general’s ashes at Dien Bien Phu Vietnam has turned down a request to scatter the ashes of General Marcel Bigeard, a highly decorated French war veteran, at the site of a pivotal battle that contributed to the end of French colonial rule. General Bigeard, who passed away last […]