Whatever area you live in there’s going to be things you love and hate. With the recent Armistice in mind, the thing I love about our area is the lengths our schools go to educate their children about respecting those who fell in the great wars.

Many people may take this for granted, but believe me, I’ve lived in areas where the war dead have very little significance at all. You can walk down high streets and hardly see a poppy and the sacrifices that have given so many an easy life are just dust in the wind.

As a youngster, I can remember the soldiers coming home. Many were blind and had limbs missing; others were suffering from post-traumatic stress. Respect and kindness was drummed into us and there wasn’t a thing us children wouldn’t do to help them. I see that same principle alive and well in our area today and I thank all the teachers and parents who spend time teaching their children about the war and more importantly, the terrible consequences of military conflict.

One thing that would cement the tragedy of war would be a visit to the war memorials that are so immaculately kept by the grateful nations that we helped to set free. I understand that grants are available for this purpose and when summer comes I would urge our schools to make every effort to take the children. A child will never forget the war once they have stood in front of 10,000 gravestones. And I want them to remember because it is understanding the futility of war that can prevent it happening again. I remember the horror of the Second World War and sitting in a freezing bomb shelter frozen with fear and wetting ourselves in terror as the bombs fell. It is something I do not want to see visited on our children.

Tommy Benfield

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