|

Armed Services Day: The Drumhead Service Market Harborough Sunday 28 June 2009

Today we have come together in Market Harborough, many miles from the dangers of Afghanistan and Iraq and the other theatres of war and operations in which our armed forces are and have been engaged, to remember and to give thanks for the men and women who, regardless of their own personal safety and wellbeing, venture out in to harm's way for us. As we stand here on this warm June Sunday there are, many miles from here, young men and women, some who only a few months ago were still at school or college, patrolling in Helmand Province, coming under fire and in range of roadside explosive devices. We know that far too many of these brave people have lost their lives or been badly injured on our behalf but we also know that their professionalism, their bravery and their dedication to the work they do means that they will carry out their duty in the face of great danger, in all weathers and in all conditions.

For those of you who have served in the armed forces, either recently or some years back, it will not come as a surprise to be told that since 1945, the year the Second World War ended, there has been only one year, just one, in which our armed forces have not suffered fatalities on active service. In each of the 64 years from 1945 until 2009 personnel from the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the army and Royal Air Force have laid down their lives for us.

Of course we remember the Berlin airlift and the campaigns in Korea, Malaya, Cyprus, Borneo, the Falklands, Northern Ireland, the two Gulf wars, Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan because they attracted and attract headlines and news reports here back at home, but we should never forget the countless other tasks that our armed forces have carried out and continue to carry out. Some we will never know about but some we do.

Humanitarian relief work in Africa, bringing food and fresh water supplies to desperate peoples whose lives have been destroyed by natural disaster, building schools and hospitals, roads and bridges, assisting in the war against drugs in the Caribbean and Afghanistan, training other countries' armed forces and, by their daily work, setting an example to other countries whose armed forces have been no respecters of democracy and accountability to the elected parliaments and governments.

At the battle of El Alamein in October 1942 Montgomery commanded an army of over 200,000 troops. Today our entire armed forces do not number that many. But I believe I can say without fear of contradiction that the soldiers and sailors of both sexes and the airmen and women serving in today' armed forces are every bit as brave, every bit as professional, every bit as proud to serve their Queen and country as their military forbears in the 20th century and in the years before that. Today we give them thanks and we salute them for all that they do and will continue to do for us, every hour and day of the year in every corner of the earth. We are proud of them and they should know that we are; we are grateful to them and they should know that we are; and they should be proud of themselves for all that they do for their country.

Edward Garnier QC MP

Harborough