diamond geezer

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

A history of the ~~two~~ three minute silence

At noon today a three minute silence will be observed across Europe in remembrance of the victims of the Sumatran tsunami. I'm all for remembering with silence, but I'm not in favour of recent 'compassion inflation' whereby these silences are getting longer. Appalling though this recent tragedy is I wonder why three minutes are needed when we remember the millions killed in wartime action with 'only' t w o. I don't believe a nation's compassion should be measured by the number of minutes it can stay silent, it should be (and thankfully is being) measured by action. But I've done some research into the origins of the two minute silence, and it turns out it started as a three minute silence anyway...

1916: Sir Percy FitzPatrick, a former British High Commissioner, is attending church in South Africa. He witnesses a silent pause after the reading of the a list of wartime casualties.
1917: Sir Percy's son, Nugent, is killed in action in France.
14th May 1918: At Sir Percy's suggestion, the Mayor of Cape Town introduces a daily Three Minutes' Pause following the noon firing of the gun on Signal Hill.
4th November 1919: Sir Percy writes a letter to the British War Cabinet, suggesting that a three minute silence be held on the first anniversary of the Armistice. "There is the dread - too well grounded in experience - that those who have gone will not always be first in the thoughts of all, and that when the fruits of their sacrifice become our daily bread, there will be few occasions to remind us of what we realise so clearly today."
5th November 1919: The War Cabinet debate Sir Percy's letter and propose instead a one minute silence, which King George V increases to two minutes.
7th November 1919: An announcement is placed in the press. "To afford an opportunity for the universal expression of this feeling, it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of our normal activities... I believe that we shall gladly interrupt our business and pleasure, whatever it may be and unite in this simple service of Silence and Remembrance."
11th November 1919: The British public observe the new two minute silence across the length and breadth of the country. Including London... "The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all."
11th November 1920: Public opinion decrees that the commemoration should continue. The two minute silence becomes the focal point of the remembrance ceremony at the new Cenotaph in Whitehall.

If three minutes is the new going rate for remembering disaster, then three minutes I'll gladly give. But, just to keep my three minutes in casualty-sized perspective, I'll be remembering the Western tourist dead for less than ten seconds and the local inhabitants for the remainder.

posted 08:00 :

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