70 YEARS ON

(THE VIEWS CONTAINED WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE MY OWN AND NOT THOSE OF PA NOR THE BIG LOTTERY FUND)

Anniversaries are usually celebrations, to bless the longevity of a marriage or the birth of a child, to mark the life of a cultural icon or to chart the effect through time of a momentous discovery. War does not belong to this group; its anniversaries are instead a reminder of our capacity for destruction and in the case of the world wars the mourning of an almost full stop for a generation around the world. Many went and all too few came back.

This year as in many previous years The Big Lottery Fund has helped some of these few to return to Europe to take part in commemoration events and to visit the graves of their dead friends and comrades. I met three of these brave men to take their portraits at the PA offices before they return to the Normandy Beaches and to Monty Casino. Normandy Veterans David Render and Walter Hart are 89 and 93 respectively and Monty Casino Veteran Jim Knox is 89 for them this 70th anniversary is particularly poignant as it may be the last time they are able to return to pay their respects.

These men who have seen things we cannot even imagine are funny, humble, stalwart, and honest, short the best advert for living you could hope for. They have with them their medals and photographs of them as younger men, a window to history that only they can open. David Render pulls from his bag a German mine warning sign and Nazi cap badge, he took as tank commander during the war that he takes to schools to talk about his experience during the war. The name of the program is called Heroes Return and these truly are heroes both now and then but the word makes them visibly uncomfortable. A lot of this can be put down to sheer humility which they all have in spades but I think they also understand that hero is a double edged sword it recognises their bravery and their sacrifice but it is also a word used to glorify war. For them the difference between being a hero and being dead was often just a matter of inches.

We owe these men a debt of gratitude we can barely comprehend, without them our lives would be very different, they saved countless lives and took their part in ending a genocide that could have engulfed the world but I feel like the only thing they really want from us is that we make sure our children don't live through what they lived through.

It is my honour to have photographed these men and can only hope my images and what I have said does them the justice they deserve.

WALTER HART

JIM KNOX

DAVID RENDER