PRESS INFORMATION FROM TUTILL REMEMBRANCE ITEMS
 
 
 Tommy Atkins: The Day Before Yesterday's Forgotten Hero

Today's servicemen and women sweltering in the heat of Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, are only the latest in a long line of writer Rudyard Kipling's 'Tommy Atkins', who have served their country in places as far apart as North Africa, Burma, the North Atlantic and on the Western Front.

Yet even for a conflict as recent as the Falklands, the memories are already fading. True, there is a natural reluctance of servicemen to talk about their experiences to family and those who were not there. And for veterans of WWI, the experiences of Paschendaele and the Somme were so horrific as to push such memories deep into the subconscious.

With the death of Harry Patch in July of 2009, there are now no longer any survivors of the 1914-18 conflict left alive. Yet while the war memorials that dot the UK's towns and villages still bear the names of his comrades in arms, asking a cross section of schoolchildren whether any of them knew whether their grandfathers fought in that war, and chances are that only three out of thirty could tell you for certain.

Keeping the memory of their sacrifice alive, may now have unlikely allies in the form of the country's many local funeral directors – if Sue Tutill managing director of Tutill Remembrance Items has anything to do with it: “Many funeral directors will arrange an annual memorial service, open to all families who have lost a loved one in that year. What we are suggesting to them now, is to consider including something similar for ex serviceman's organisations or even military history associations with links to particular towns, into their existing programmes of community involvement”.

“These young men's – and sometimes women's - lives were cut short defending freedoms that we perhaps take too-readily for granted. Surely we owe them more than a three-minute silence on Armistice day?” She adds.

Tutill Remembrance Items have strong links with the armed forces, both as suppliers of water-soluble cremation caskets for use by the Royal Navy's chaplaincy for burials at sea, as well as providers of military memorial books for army funerals, which could also be used as the focal point for a commemorative service or ceremony.

Ends

Image caption: “Tutill Remembrance Items: mobilising UK funeral directors to help commemorate the heroes from the day before yesterday.”

More images and further information at: http://www.aardvarkpr.co.uk/downloads.htm

Editors contact:	Aardvark Associates			tel. 01308 897 911
Company contact:	Tutill Remembrance Items  		tel. 01322 621100

Please note that this document is for information only and is non-contractual;
both Aardvark Associates and Tutill Remembrance Items decline all liability in the case of omissions or errors.