COMMENTS ON REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY AT THE ARMED FORCES MEMORIAL
Commenting on the ceremony held this morning (Sunday 11th November) at
the Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum near
Lichfield in Staffordshire, Michael Fabricant says: "This was one of the
most moving Remembrance ceremonies I have ever attended. At 11am, the
sun suddenly shone and cast a vivid shaft of light through slits in the
two outer walls of the Memorial and illuminated the wreath at the
centre. But it was later when a family all in tears – an older lady, a
mother, and two young children – laid a wreath on behalf of a recently
fallen son, husband and father that many of us felt the most moved. I
saw tears running down the face of a senior naval officer.
"I believe that in the years to come, when personal memories of the
Great War and the Second World War inevitably fade, the new Armed Forces
Memorial will become the national centrepiece for Remembrance. Its
commanding position over the southern Staffordshire plain, its location
at the centre of our nation, and its mission to commemorate fallen
servicemen since 1945 will bring a personal dimension to the Act of
Remembrance which is no longer so alive at the Cenotaph in Whitehall."