We can never forget the Great War, Briton lost 800,000 men and another 200,000 from the Imperial family. Even the smallest village has a war memorial commemorating the lost generation of young men, then there was double or triple that number again wounded for life. 20,000+ men lost in single battles, the beginning of the end of the Empire, the war which redrew the map all over the globe. It truly was the Great War, WWII seems more important in the US but the first war had a huge impact on Britain.

You should also mention the grave of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abby and the Cenotaph in London.

I think it is so, so important, that we remember, and that we keep remembering. So that we honour those that died to keep us safe, and fought for us. I heard this poem at a Remembrance Sunday service this year and got a bit teary:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

That’s my favourite bit of the poem.
Sorry, I got a bit over-emotional there and went on a bit. I am very interested in this topic so I’m afraid I ramble. Just take it as a compliment that I am so interested in your post that I’m typing all this! The one thing I would dispute about your post, though, is the mention of the economy and that being the reason why we take so much notice of Remembrance Day. I really think economics are not the issue. People don’t remember it because they are still poor and their areas are still seeing the effects, they remember it because they have been told, since they were old enough to go to school, about the meaning of Remembrance Day, the importance of it, and they are taught about the First and Second World Wars several times through school. Then there are so many TV history programmes about it still, parents tell you about it, poppies are sold and seen everywhere, and even comedy programmes like Blackadder show their respects when they bring it up (the end sequence of the last episode of that made me cry). I also went to Omaha Beach, and the sheer scale of the graveyard there from that one battle is astounding.

World War I and II are still extremely in the public consciousness, and it’s because of all I have just said, as well as the fact that during WWII in particular we were attacked in our own country, they actually came into Britain, and so it was much more immediate and real and important, and when we were all fighting the Nazis it was absolutely vital that we did not lose. WWII affected everyone in the country- not just soldiers, but ordinary people all joined the Home Guard, the Land Girls, who took over from farmers who became soldiers, the RAF and WAAF, became air raid wardens, fire fighters, worked in munitions factories children were evacuated, every house had a bomb shelter or access to a public shelter, food and everything else was rationed until the 50s, and the country became poorer and poorer battling to win this war. Can you imagine having to hide in the Anderson shelter in the middle of the night as you listened to planes flying overhead and bombs falling? The war affected everyone and everything. There are so many books, TV programmes, etc, about it that we know how hard it was, how determinedly we had to fight, and how awful the consequences would be if we stopped. But we won (not just the British, I mean all the Allied forces and EVERYONE), and we are free and British (and others, again) because of it.

I think that is why we remember and repect the people who fought for us. Not because of the economic reminder.