‘ No names, No Pack Drill ‘

Mum often used the phrase, ‘No names, No Pack Drill’, when she wanted to find out what had actually happened, without asking who had caused the mishap. I didn’t ask, then, where the saying came from.

In The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms, I read that it is ‘An army phrase, from a form of punishment which involved offenders marching up and down carrying full equipment’.

Ninety years, and many Remembrance Day Services, since the end of ‘The War to End All wars’, it is difficult to realise the full horror of war, despite all the books and films about it.

On Remembrance Sunday this year, I was at home, preparing a Christmas package for a young soldier who will be in Iraq then. A photo in ‘The Sandbach Chronicle’ seemed to sum up my feelings at the time. The photo caption was ‘The throng arrives at St. Mary’s Church’. The picture shows cadets, from various groups, lining the path while bowed–headed members from the Parade made their way into Church for the service.

I wear my poppy with pride, but am so sad that it is still needed.

Mary Garratt
24th. November 2008.