Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, and Minister of State for the Armed Forces, joined around 30 other MPs, all of whom had either served or continue to serve in our Armed Forces, to take part in an act of Remembrance ahead of Sunday’s official national commemorations.
With the MPs drawn from across a number of parties, the Guards Chapel in London’s Wellington Barracks provided a fitting setting for the MPs to pay their respects to those who had died in the two World Wars and conflicts since.
This was the second consecutive year that current and retired Armed Forces personnel who are now parliamentarians in the House of Commons have gathered in this way. The service, which was organised by Mark Francois, included the Last Post, Kohima Epitaph and two-minute silence as well as hymns Eternal Father Strong To Save, I Vow To Thee My Country and Jerusalem. The service was conducted by Reverend Kevin Bell, Senior Chaplain London District, with a wreath laid by Sir Peter Tapsell, the Father of the House of Commons on behalf of all those present.
With this, the hundredth year since the start of WWI, the service carried particular significance. Alongside the hundreds of thousands of British Servicemen killed while on active service in the Great War were nineteen serving Members of Parliament, commemorated in the House of Commons Books of Remembrance. Amongst them was Valentine Fleming MP, a Major in the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars and father of Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels.
Following on from their forebears, almost 60 of the current 650 MPs in the House of Commons have served their country either in the regular or reserve forces, with some still serving in the reserves. Those in attendance represented military service in a variety of operational theatres including Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland.