Ambulance Memorial

A Time of Remembrance

To Honour Our Own

We must remember. If we do not, their lives will be meaningless. They died serving the general public and for many of our colleagues found within the 'Roll of Honour', for barely a liveable wage, as it is only in recent years that salaries have reflected the responsibility their work rightly deserves.

Their daily work touched the lives of all ages, races and social classes as they treated their patients in times of trauma, sickness and often bereavement. What many see through the lens of a television camera or a journalist's writings is often far from the reality and emotional stress they endured.

By remembering their time of service and their sacrifice, we recognize the proud tradition of the Ambulance Service as they treat and transport the sick, injured and dying to more appropriate places of medical treatment.

"O Lord our God, whose name only is excellent; we offer and dedicate this Memorial to your glory and in gratitude for all who served in the Ambulance Services and especially those persons who served in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland,  Jersey, Guernsey and the Republic of Ireland who gave their lives, the names of whom are put together in the Memorial 'Roll of Honour' as a permanent record in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen"

Closing prayer and blessing by Father Paylerson, RC Priest of Barton under Needwood, at the official unveiling of the Ambulance Memorial 16th September, 2004.

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run--
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man*, my son!

(*or....you can work for the Ambulance Service)

Rudyard Kipling