Ahead of Armistice Day on Friday 11th and Remembrance Day on Sunday 13th, our Belfast team once again, hosted its annual Remembrance Ceremony.
Held on our main yard, by our historical War Memorial Plaques, the ceremony was led by Graham Couser, our General Manager and began with a recital of the Thomas Morrison poem ‘To Their Memory’. This poem was first included in an edition of the Belfast Weekly Telegraph in April 1921 which at the time was reporting on the unveiling of the three bronze memorial plaques containing the names of the 494 men who sacrificed their lives in the Great War.
Following the poem, came a performance from Piper, Mark Smith and wreath laying. The ceremony finished with a two-minute silence.
Graham Couser, General Manager of Harland & Wolff (Belfast) commented:
“We were delighted to host this ceremony today to pay our respects. With so many of our staff in attendance along with Mark, our fantastic piper, this was a great opportunity to come together to remember those who sacrificed their lives”
‘To Their Memory’ by Thomas Morrison
To all their names we bow
Our heads in reverence here
Where earned thought seems now
Forerunner of the tear
For those that sacrificed their all
In answer to our country’s call
They nobly fought and died
For Justice, Truth and Right
While we beheld with pride
Their conduct day and night
Where’re the deadly struggle raged
In which our comrades were engaged
On that day of July
By Thiepval’s battle plain
Their “No Surrender” cry
Stirred blood in every vein
And with their words upon our lips
We answered to the call for ships
Our captain led the way
His staff no effort spared
Mid bustle night and day
The cry “‘more ships” we heard
And to that object, all abreast
Each loyal workman give his best
This gathering here reveals
Appreciable thought
And every man now feels
That as he daily wrought
His spirit lingered side by side
With Tommy o’er the ocean wide
This monument erect
Shall have our tender care
And reverence and respect
From those that placed there
For it denotes so clear and plain
Life’s sacrifice not made in vain
