Why did we forget.......

I didn't go to the game on Saturday as I took the opportunity of the FA Cup weekend to visit an old friend in Southwold. Betty, who was born just two years after the outbreak of the Great War and then decorated for her work in the Fire Service during the Second, moved to East Anglia when her husband left the frenetic BBC newsroom in London for the tranquillity of regional television.

Yes, I was so certain of a draw with Rotherham that a trip to Sheffield, taking in a business meeting in Llandovery on the way, was planned the instant that our ‘numbers had been drawn’.

My brothers both agreed that Aldershot, ‘were all over Rotherham’. That, ‘we were by far and away the better team’. And they were in accord that, ‘we should have scored four’.

Rotherham scored first and John Grant converted a penalty in the last minute. It was destined to be a draw and my trip to the Don Valley Stadium has been confirmed.

As the inevitable result was being played out at the Recreation Ground I was enjoying the autumn solitude of the East Anglian coast and attempting to stimulate images from a mind that has experienced so much in over 92 years. Although each day is now no more than 24 hours spent in conversation with her memories, I found Betty reassuringly bright and informed.

Age gives the brain security in its ability to ignore the 'news trivia' of today….Joey Barton, Eastenders, Terry Brown (former manager of Aldershot Town FC)…..and with every day that passes energy is channelled in an attempt to maintain and sharpen the image of the important……the Wall Street Crash, the War in Europe, The Beatles, the Falklands War, Bobby Moore and the ’66 World Cup.

As the War in Europe entered its last year Betty’s work for the London Fire Service became less intense and for the first time in years hope for the future started to suppress the daily pain of war.

And for Aldershot FC the days of playing Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, West Ham, and Portsmouth were also drawing to a close and the Recreation Ground would soon resonate to the sounds of Exeter, Torquay and Mansfield.

On Saturday February 17th 1945 nearly 16000 spectators crammed into the Rec to see the ‘D-Day dodgers’ lose 6v1 to Tottenham Hotspur in the League South Cup. On the same day U Boat 1278 was sunk north-west of Bergen, Norway – 48 dead (all hands lost) and U- 1273 was sunk in the Skaggerak, Oslofjord – 43 dead and 8 survivors.

Furthermore two clear signs of German disarray in face of the Russian onslaught emerged in the week leading up to the Aldershot v Spurs match. As military difficulties increased for Germany, Martin Bormann drafted women into service to support the armed forces. And the Soviet offensive forced the evacuation of rocket expert Wernher von Braun together with other scientists from their top-secret V-weapon station at Peenemunde. Yes, Betty’s life would soon return to ‘normal’.

The words ‘Lest we Forget’ form the refrain of ‘Recessional’, Rudyard Kipling’s poem, composed on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1887. The phrase passing into common usage after the First World War, becoming linked with Remembrance Day observations - and often found as the only wording on war memorials.

Betty sat back in her chair, looked out over the haunting beauty of Blythburgh Marshes and then softly closed her eyes…..it was time to leave her in the shroud of her own memories.

And at the Recreation Ground Aldershot, on the day before Remembrance Sunday, the Town welcomed back Terry Brown. ‘Today’s guest of honour needs absolutely no introduction to Shots supporters.

Terry Brown will forever be remembered with fondness by all at Aldershot Town…..’

And as the corporate party continued right up to kick off, no time for a ‘Minutes Silence’; the Chairman recording the next day that it was 'circumstances' or was it an 'oversight' as the reason.

I'm sure the crowd gave Terry an efficacious wave at half time.....it's just a shame that it was he who was remembered.....