When we say our farewells to dear Granddad
On that day when the Lord calls him home
Will you remember his youth as a soldier
Or recall just a tired old man

We remember Montgomery and Churchill
The outrageous like Lawrence live too
Not the Jones or James, the Browns or the Baines
We immortalise only the few.

Yet families mourned in their thousands
Through names like the Marne and the Somme
We name battles from places not people
Ten thousand names lost to the one

In your lifetime our forces are fighting
Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan
Places we would never have heard of
Claim the lives of young women and men

Your memories of Granddad are happy
Which is how he would wish them to be
But remember he served as a soldier
And the freedom they give you and me