[Picture from same article - copyright guardian.co.uk,
25/11/2012 – Image Sean Smith]
25.11.2012. About halfway into this
extraordinary journey through the British army, a funeral occurs. And why not?
Soldiers are nowadays horribly accustomed to the last bugle salute to that
latest victim of our unwinnable wars. But this one is different.
It involves the burial of the wife of a
Fijian soldier, herself a sergeant in the Adjutant General's Corps. The
widower, Will, also a soldier, but, more importantly, a member of a ruling
family in Fiji, decided that rather than repatriate her body, he would blend
customs of home with the couple's married life in the army. According to Fijian
practice, the body is handed over by the dead woman's family (who have flown
from Fiji) to the officiating party – the army in this case – and left in state
overnight before funeral rites.
These are administered in the presence of
regimental colonels and, says Will, "brigadiers, commandants came down
there. Beautiful I would say. Not a pleasant thing for me, but the army's seen
how we work as a culture … this was the living example".
It is
a vivid and deeply moving scene and one that cuts to the core of what is
happening within Britain's armed forces.
