Today, on VE Day, we remember all of those who heeded the call, serving both abroad and at home; across all branches of the military and the other vital wartime services.
We remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and those who survived - returning to a war-battered country, beleaguered, injured, yet determined that the world must have a lasting peace, and our country a brighter tomorrow.
The Second World War was truly a global war - no corner of our globe remained untouched. We remember those, then too, who stood with Britain shoulder to shoulder, from the mightiest of nations to those courageous individuals working behind enemy lines in occupied countries.
Today, the words of the late King George VI on VE Day 1945 ring as true today as they did then:
“Let us turn our thoughts on this day of just triumph and proud sorrow; and then take up our work again, resolved as a people to do nothing unworthy of those who died for us and to make the world such a world as they would have desired, for their children and for ours.”
