Queen deserves wartime gratitude

That military trappings were very appropriate in the royal funeral is evident if we take seriously both

[a] the resounding words of the Queen herself on Wed May 18, 2011 in Dublin Castle - “being able to bow to the past, but not to be bound by it”, and [b]

that she, as a teenager, volunteered as a junior officer 230,873 in the 190,000-strong ATS [ womens Army Corps] in 1945; those almost five million in UK Forces included both her future husband Philip, and his commander, the Dublin-born Royal Navy chief Admiral Andrew Cunningham from Rathmines, as well as up to 166,500 volunteers from our island, 8,673 of whom lost their lives, and they, along with the Resistance across Nazi-Occupied Europe, including the Dublin-born writer Sam Beckett in France, the 34.5 million in the Red Army, including 0.5 million Jews [ the Army who lost most ] and 16 million in US Forces, including 0.5 million Jews, rescued humanity from Nazi brutality and tyranny.

All deserve our gratitude and admiration, including Elizabeth and her husband.

Tom Carew, Ranelagh Dublin 6