Why Remembrance Day matters here in Gloucestershire

As the Royal British Legion says " Remembrance honours those who serve to defend our democratic freedoms and way of life." Across Gloucestershire on the closest Sunday to November 11, villages in the Cotswolds or the Forest of Dean, our great cathedral city of Gloucester, Regency Cheltenham, Stroud and its Five Valleys and Tewkesbury with its Norman Abbey - every community will once again come to remember those who paid the biggest sacrifice.

At war memorials and cenotaphs, communities unite across faiths, cultures and backgrounds to remember the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces community from United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. We will remember them.

To mark Remembrance Day 2024, at Gloucestershire Live we've spoken to three Armed Forces Champions representing three Gloucestershire councils, where the democracy that is very precious takes place every year on our behalf locally.

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As an ex member of staff at GCHQ, Cllr Steve Harvey is Armed Forces Champion for Cheltenham Borough Council. With GCHQ on the town's doorstep, Cllr Harvey says he'll be thinking about the "significant military contingent at GCHQ serving overseas and I have worked with them in Cheltenham. They are worthy of being remembered and we have retired veterans or current members of the military currently serving at GCHQ, I always think about them and that is where some of my thoughts will be once again on Remembrance Day."

"Remembrance is critical to remember those that have died before us. I do understand why some feel it is a celebration (of war) but it's not a celebration, it is a commemoration of an event, which has crystalised into remembering the fallen from the Second World War, Korea and many conflicts."

Stroud District Council has an Armed Forces Champion Group and includes three councillors, Chair of the Council Cllr Kate Kay, Cllr Shyama Ananthan and Cllr Paul Turner.

Speaking on behalf of the group and from a personal point of view, Cllr Kay says "war is a terrible thing where we pause to remember the impact war has on countries in which they are fought. It is right as a country that we spend a few minutes in the year to think about those who gave their lives and the impact on civilians, women and children, especially when there are terrible conflicts happened now in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza."

On Stroud as a whole, Cllr Kay knows that across the District, Remembrance is "where every year, even small communities think about the personal cost including villages that lost sometimes the entirety of their young men, so that is what I think about every Remembrance Day."

For Stroud and the wider District on veterans, "we are thinking of you and trying to support you," Cllr Kay adds. "For many veterans, November 11th is quite painful because it is a time when they are drawn back to horrific memory of war. In Stroud we're being as supportive as possible and it is always a time to remember and think what veterans gave up for our freedoms."

A final conversation is with the Armed Forces Champion for Forest of Dean District Council, Cllr Alan Preest, a RAF veteran himself of nine years with relatives who served in the Second World War including an uncle who was killed at the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944.

Describing Remembrance Day as the "most poignant day of the calendar", Cllr Preest says it is not just about World Wars but also remembering recent conflicts such as the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is vital not just to remember the loss of life and the impact wars have on everybody's lives today, but also the legacy it leaves. We are lucky in this country to have freedoms, which is certainly not the case already as we see in Ukraine and the worries about the Middle East. War is the ultimate sacrifice that so many people gave."

On the Forest of Dean and the communities who will remember the fallen this weekend, Cllr Preest said: "You've only got to look at the names on war memorials in the Forest to know that everyone's local connection to war is still there, that is the most poignant thing. Local people in the Forest were killed in the Falklands, Afghanistan and Iraq, we always remember them."

Supporting veterans including the Forest of Dean Armed Forces Support Network, "there are so many people who want to offer support to veterans, Cllr Preest adds where there will be future dialogue between Gloucestershire County Council on veterans who may not find the message that there is lots of support for the armed forces community in the county. "It is all about joined up thinking and on Remembrance Day, if we can spread that message of support far and wide that when veterans need help, communities will give them help."