A few weeks ago I met John. He was off to Belgium to spend time with his mates. John wasn’t your ordinary lad, off on a weekend bender — although I certainly hope there were lots of people who offered to buy him a beer when he got there. You see John is 100 years old, and the mates he went to spend time with were the ones he left behind 80 years ago in Arnhem.
This week has been pretty important for John, because this week we all joined him in remembering those fallen friends and the thousands of others whose sacrifice made VE Day possible. It was the whole country from the King right down to the eight year old child standing in The Mall marvelling at the colours trailing from the Red Arrows and waving at the Lancaster bomber that seemed to be flying so slowly by comparison.
So many veterans of that awful war came back and never spoke about what they had been through, or the horrors they had witnessed. And many veterans in conflicts since, from Burma, Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan have done the same. Some bottled it up because they didn't want to burden their families. Some just wanted to bury the memories and forget. Some were traumatised and found they could no longer cope with "civvy street". Some became homeless, and tragically some committed suicide.
All of us owe a debt of gratitude to these service men and women. But it is a debt that has not always been repaid as it should. That is why the government has announced this week, to coincide with VE Day, that it is investing £50million in our veterans to build wrap around support services for them to help with the mental, physical and everyday challenges that they face when returning to civilian life. This support will be for housing, and for getting back into employment, it will bring together existing charities and local government at a regional level to ensure their health and wellbeing. It will make sure that we remember our veterans not just once a year, but every day when they need us. All of this will be provided through what is being called the VALOUR network. John will know why.
Our highest military honour in this country is the Victoria Cross. It carries just two words, “For Valour”