On 2025-11-11 it will be 80 years since the end of WW2. And just a little over 107 years since the end of The Great War, later called WW1.
It carries dual meaning for me personally; my ancestry spans two very different experiences of the wars.
One grandfather was a Major in the Cavalry. From an army family, he had army experience in India, in Egypt, and many other places. Some of his brothers fought and never returned – but not all for bad reasons; one met a nice French girl and made a life in France. Until he had to flee France in 1939, that is, just before the Nazis reached Paris.
Here he is looking very handsome on a camel!
One grandfather was from a family of Quakers, pacifists, vegetarians, conscientious objectors. A stretcher-bearer on the front line, I don’t know exactly where. But his brother, also a stretcher-bearer, served on the Somme. He refused to ever talk about what he saw and experienced. These days PTSD would be recognised, but much less so back then. I can’t even begin to imagine the experiences they went through there.
I have no photographs, but here is a newspaper article about their father, my great-grandfather, from 1937.
I have no problem having immense respect for both sets of ancestors. Very different principles, but all sincerely held and stuck to.
This dual ancestry is an important component of who I am. Having different perspectives on things helps one to think outside of the box. To understand entirely different modes of thought. To empathise with diverse groups. To recognise the edge-cases.
And, for me, an awful lot of security & cybersecurity is all about the edge-cases because that is where things break down, ambiguities are legion, and software that otherwise behaves flawlessly can be exploited unless it specifically takes account of them.
Above all, however, today is to remember those who fought against some of the very ways of thinking we see resurgent today. Many died, the survivors experienced horrendous things – all to give us the freedoms we seem to value so little today.
Without their sacrifice, Sophie could not exist.
Sophie Baskerville 