Burma Star association folds as members are too few, too old

[40below]

One final salute
VETERANS: Local branch of the Burma Star Association is disbanding 64 years after the end of the Second World War
Posted By IAN ELLIOT [email protected]
Updated 5 hours ago


When members of the Burma Star Association gather in City Hall next Saturday to commemorate the end of the war in the Pacific, it will be for the last time.

The local branch of the association, made up of veterans who fought against Japan in the Second World War, is disbanding 64 years after the end of the war.

Like many veterans' groups, its numbers are steadily declining due to members dying, and many of those who are still alive are in frail health unable to take part in the association's activities, the most important of which is the annual service in City Park marking Aug. 15, 1945, the day Japan surrendered.

"We're all getting older and it's making it more difficult to maintain the association," said Francis Agnes, the longtime secretary-treasurer of the group.

He noted the average age of the membership is between 86 and 90, and of the approximately 50 members, only about 20 are still able to be active with the association.

The local Burma Star Association was formed after the war by Air Commodore Leonard Birchall, Capt. John Langton and Jim Keenleyside, all veterans of Burma.

Many of the members were prisoners of war and worked as slave labour in Japanese internment camps, some on the brigades that built the bridge over the River Kwai. Thousands of men died in the horrific conditions that included torture, starvation and beatings by their captors.

More:
http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1691370

 

[1feral1]

Perhaps interested sons/daughters and grandchildren should keep the association alive.

Thats what they do here as the Vet numbers dwindle as one day there will be none.

This is how we keep the ANZAC spirit alive here, but the cultures for Australian Vets and how they are remembered are night and day compared to Canada.

OWDU

 

[mariomike]

Perhaps interested sons/daughters and grandchildren should keep the association alive.

Thats what they do here as the Vet numbers dwindle as one day there will be none.

This is how we keep the ANZAC spirit alive here, but the cultures for Australian Vets and how they are remembered are night and day compared to Canada.

OWDU

An example I appreciated was the Irish Regiment of Canada website. Someone had actually gone to Ottawa and put the biographies of those who died online.

 

[wildman0101]

Gentlemen of the Burma Star  Thank-you 
Bless you all :cheers:

                scoty b

 

[basrah]

I still remember being a young guy and seeing all the old WW1 vets in their wheel chairs on Rememberance day. The fact that they are (almost) all gone is a loss of a National Treasure. The fact that we are losing so many WW2 vets is just tragic.

 

[Edward Campbell]

I still remember being a young guy and seeing all the old WW1 vets in their wheel chairs on Rememberance day. The fact that they are (almost) all gone is a loss of a National Treasure. The fact that we are losing so many WW2 vets is just tragic.

With respect: vets who were fortunate enough to survive got old; old men die.

The point of Remembrance Day is the young men who never had a chance to get old.

"Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn."