WE WILL REMEMBER THEM - 07 November 2009

This week starts with Remembrance Sunday if like me you believe the first day of the week to be Sunday. The Nation remembers with our leaders gathering to pay tribute to those who have given their lives in battle although traditionally we remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the First World War, the act of remembrance now also includes those who have lost their lives in all conflicts since then too. We need to remember that there is only one year in which British troops have not been lost in action since 1945.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we will be encouraged to pause again to remember. Many people will turn out at memorials around the country, or simply pause at their place of work, or even in our shops to remember. With the loss of life amongst our Armed Forces in Afghanistan continuing to rise, today the act of remembrance is as relevant as it ever was. Strange as it may appear now, it was only a few years ago that there were calls for the annual act of remembrance to be abolished because it was thought to be irrelevant.

We pause to remember the courage, bravery, determination of those who over the generations have fought for our nation, although in reality they were doing so for their mates and comrades when it came down to the wire. Those who joined so enthusiastically at to the cry from Lord Kitchener, the secretary of state for war in 1914 at the rate of 2,500 men per day simply because they did not want to miss out on the fun soon changed their views when they arrived at the frontline. Then there were those who were more reluctant and who were conscripted but just as brave and courageous.

Anyone who has taken part in conflict knows its horrors. Famously when a woman at a drinks party approached the Duke of Wellington to congratulate him on a famous victory received a bit of a shock. Wellington replied, "Madame, I always say that, next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained"

Neville Chamberlain said "In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers".

Both and Wellington and Chamberlain knew the horrors of war but also saw the need to confront evil head on.

Harry Patch the last surviver from the trenches of the First World War died earlier this year,. When he met with with a German who fought in the trenches opposite him he said this, "We've had 87 years to think what war is. To me, it's a licence to go out and murder. Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn't speak? All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Now what is the sense in that?"

We remember because the cost of sending off to war our young men and women is almost too horrific to contemplate.

We also remember those who did and still return form war scared both physically and mentally. More service personnel who served in the Falkland's War have taken their own lives than those were were killed in the conflict. We remember the agony and anguish of those who were and are waiting at home, because for families it comes down to my son, my daughter, my wife, my husband, my partner, my daddy my comrade, my friend. On the grave of a soldier in France can be found these words "to the world he was a soldier, to us he was the world".

The members of our Armed Forces are an amazing group of dedicated young people. As we remember, we ought also to be determined to give those facing great danger today all the support they require as they face roadside bombs and snipers bullets. There is little point in remembering if it does not impact upon the way we think and behave today.

I trust that this week we will all together, or individually in our own way pause to remember.