I remember all those so very many lives that could have been, cut so cruelly short.
They fought for Britain. They fought for our home. They fought for us. I am forever grateful that they were successful.
Their sacrifice mattered.
I always think of just how lucky we are to live in a country they defended. It is very easy indeed to take for granted the peace they secured, because we have never known anything else.
We wake up, we work, we raise our families - all on the foundation they built. In peace, because of them.
However many challenges Britain faces today, the alternative is far worse.
All of our freedoms, however now fragile, didn’t happen by accident. They were earned in the hardest way imaginable. An enormous price was paid - the most enormous price.
Fewer and fewer remain to tell their stories, but their generation left us a Britain built on courage and decency.
Our job is to keep it that way, to protect the country they gave everything for.
We will remember them.