Remember

Having just marked another Remembrance weekend, I would like to take the opportunity to offer a few thoughts on the importance of honouring this festival.

Remember

Every year in last October, the Royal British Legion launches its annual poppy campaign in order to raise funds to assist its excellent work with our retiree soldiers from campaigns of times past to those who have been injured in current theatres of war. Their work also extends to helping relatives who have lost a loved one in war. The work is brought into sharp focus for about 2 weeks of the yar although  their work is ongoing every day of the year.

In 2009, I visited some of the 1^st world war battle sites of the Somme in northern France. It was sobering to see row after row of gravestones where many gallant young men fell, many of whom were between their late teens and mid-20’s. There were many poignant sites in the area including the Beaumont Hamel, where there is an imposing monument of a lone Caribou calling out to the fallen sons of Newfoundland who perished in that brutal conflict thousands of miles from home. Further into the battle site revealed the monument to the 51^st Highland Division. This included the Gordon Highlanders, Seaforth and Camerons Brigade and the Argyll and Southerland Highlanders. There was also a Lancashire division drafted in to the regiment for a time and the fields around Beaumont Hamel also have the graves of many valliant soldiers from the Red Rose county.  The Black Watch took the place of the Lancashire soldiers and earned the respect of their German foes for their fighting spirit. Some of these storied regiment names may have disappeared at the stroke of a politician’s pen back in 2006 but their blood sacrifice in the cause of freedom will be remembered by the people of our nation.

We may have said goodbye to the last WW1 veteran in the last couple of years but we still have a reasonable number of WW2 veterans in our midst today. It is incredible to imagine what it must have been like in those times such as the Battle of Britain and the battles on the beaches of northern France. There were also many town and cities that paid a terrible price in the German Blitzkreig such as Clydebank, Coventry and Portsmouth. All of these places would rise again although the memory of those ordinary citizens who perished will never be forgotten.  It amazes me how the nation came together as one to join the fight against evil. In my own family, my grandfather was a gunner in the RAF, mainly based in the Middle East campaigns in WW2. Below is a picture of him just after he signed up, this was taken at Blackpool before all the boys went into service (he is in the second row from the bottom, second left). Like many of that generation, he did not speak much of the war and it was only late in his life that we learned of the extent of his war efforts. The reason that our nation overcame the threat to our freedom was due to millions of such men who put themselves on the line when their country needed them.

The UK has undergone some economic difficulties in the last few years and we all have to acknowledge that spending cuts have been needed across all areas of public service. I am not convinced that the best way to reduce our deficit was to very publicly decommission our Aircraft Carrier, Ark Royal, and the fleet of Harrier jump jets back in 2010. What sort of message does this send out to the world? This decision looks somewhat absurd when the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers are not due until 2016 and 2018. There were also concerns that we may not have the aircraft needed until 2020, meaning that our state of the art ships would look like giant, maritime ironing boards. France has also suffered economic problems but they haven’t decided to sell off their imposing Charles de Gaulle nuclear powered aircraft carrier. The UK must have its own carrier as we may have to protect the people of the Falkland Islands once more, as Argentinian sabre rattling increases.

All areas of our forces also play a key role in peacetime. The Royal Navy Fisheries Protection Squadron patrols 80000 square miles of UK waters and also get involves in Anti-drugs surveillance. Want to play Blackjack Mr Putin? No problem, a couple of our boys will be there at Mach 2 to intercept and gently guide you round the perimeter of our airspace whenever you come calling. As an island nation, we rely on those at the sharp end of national security to be provided with the relevant resources to deter our enemies.

 

On the morning of 11/11, I went to the Cenotaph in my home town of Dalry along with many people from the local community to witness a dignified ceremony. The local Church of Scotland minister read a passage of scripture entitled The Mountain of The Lord and this seemed very appropriate as we stood at the highest point of the public park, everyone recognising that they were on consecrated ground.

Through the ages, our armed forces have been there to defend our nation. I have been encouraged by the way that everyone comes together at this time to honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the call of duty. Our armed forces look after all of our interests worldwide in peace time and in war. Above all, they are the people who put the Great into Britain.