Looking back on my blog, I see that we made our first visit to the National Memorial Arboretum, near Alrewas in Staffordshire, in November 2021. We went back today for a second visit and I took a number of photos:

Being full of trees, mid-autumn is an excellent time to go. Some, like the specimen above, were full of bright colours although I expect the display will stretch on for another month or more. As on our last visit, I found it a very poignant place to explore. There is a certain ambiguity in celebrating any aspect of armed conflict but there is no doubt that many brave people have put themselves in harm’s way to protect others.

Last time, we just wandered round. This time, we also heard a couple of the talks which are regularly delivered. One was in the chapel, were a short Act of Remembrance happens every day of the year (even, I believe, when it is closed to the public on Christmas Day). The other we ended up in by accident – Jane lingered inside the Far East Prisoners of War exhibition and, by the time we came out, I was listening to a guide explain that area. However it did mean that we were shown a number of sections, like the Chindits memorial stuck right on the edge of the site, which we would otherwise have missed.