Remembrance commemorations have taken on an even deeper significance for local Cadets this week as they have become custodians of ten commemorative silhouettes of WW1 soldiers.
The acrylic silhouettes have been created as part of the national ‘There but not There’ art installation which remembers the Fallen of the First World War. The eerie presence of these ‘shadow people’ will serve to remind communities that those who made the ultimate sacrifice left real gaps behind them.
There are several designs of acrylic silhouette within the creative concept, ranging from full-size outlines of ‘Tommies’ to smaller, table-top versions of that impactful image. The Cadets of F Company 2nd (NI) Battalion, centred in Ballykinler Cadet Training Centre, received ten silhouettes measuring 100cm x 60cm, which were funded for them by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust, Remembered and Youth United Foundation. The silhouettes were placed on empty chairs during the cadets’ traditional Service of Remembrance, as a poignant reminder of those who never returned from the First World War.
Sergeant Major Instructor Alan Douglas, Detachment Commander at Ballykinler Army Cadet Force Detachment, said of the Remembrance project: “We are delighted that our young people have played such an active role in this hugely evocative and significant national venture. Already their studies of World War 1 have made them think more deeply about the real people – many of them little older than themselves – who were caught up in the war and taken from ‘ordinary’ lives into the horror of the trenches.
“The stories of First World War courage and self-sacrifice are at once inspirational and moving, but it is important that we do not think of these as tales from a story book… these were real people who left real families behind them.”
During the Service of Remembrance, the Cadets also paused for thought, recalling in particular from the 2nd (NI) Battalion Army Cadet Force Roll of Honour Major William Henry McAlpine (1978), Major John Edward Truckle (1983) and Corporal Channing Amanda Day (2012).
