WE MUST NOT FORGET

Whilst we engage in the ceremony and formality of Remembrance Sunday, with the poppies, the parades and the silence, our thoughts turn to those in our own families who gave their lives. My father fought throughout and survived WWI. My uncle, his brother, was killed on the Somme, so I never had the cousins who would have been his children. My great grandparents were killed in the blitz. Today there are many who grieve for much more recent sacrifice, most recent of all in Iraq and Afghanistan, both wars which cause much public unease. The death toll combined for these two theatres of the War on Terror at this moment stands at 522, but by tomorrow or the next day this number will have risen.

We need, too, to remember, how a war can be won and the peace lost. This is how World War One was followed by World War Two. We need also to remind ourselves of the numbers. The total death toll among  the British armed services in both the world wars was 1,270,009. This must never be forgotten.