As always I attended our town's own tribute. The format subtly changed this year and sadly for the worse in my view. Four cadet sentinels as ever stood at the four corners of the memorial but this year they were unarmed so, instead of resting on arms reversed (a complicated drill movement that they accomplished with much skill in previous years), they were bizarrely stood at ease throughout. The reason for all this I have no idea, but my feeling is that military mourning etiquette is precise for a purpose. If you use sentinels they should be armed, otherwise don't.
Nonetheless the laying of wreaths, crosses and poppies by the high and the low, official bodies and anonymous individuals, was as poignant as ever. It is the young that always impress me the most with their natural awareness of the solemnity of the moment. No-one cares that they cannot yet march properly, they make up for it in the pride of their pack or their group and reverence for the occasion.
CM, I too saw the BC Memorial recently and like you was impressed with its formal dignity and also with the personal tributes laid at the feet of the seven man crew, for they show that this is a living memorial, cherished and respected by the families that had to wait so very long for it.