00:00A huge thank you to you, first off, for being willing to share in this day with everybody.
00:06A huge thank you to the Lord Lieutenant for her willingness to be able to come and represent today
00:11and to support us in this very important event.
00:16And also to the Masonic Order, to everybody who have made this possible.
00:20But most importantly, to Denise, who has been absolutely the driving force in ensuring that today has happened.
00:28It is absolutely vital that we remember the service of everybody who is a veteran in our country.
00:34And when I, as the MP, first met Mr and Mrs Ward a number of years ago, when I first became an MP, I think it was 2018, 2019,
00:42I was astounded by the story that Mr Ward told me when I was sat in their front room, when I was out knocking on doors.
00:51And he told me about this story that he had experienced in the 50s and the 60s, which I had known nothing about.
00:57And I thought I knew a little bit about history.
01:00And to find out that there were so many thousands of people who also had experienced this.
01:07And Mr Ward rightly told me that there was a need to make sure that this was understood and signified and heard by so many more people.
01:15And it's taken a long time to get here, but I was so pleased that the government saw fit to award the medal last year.
01:22And to recognise the service of everybody who had spent so much time and experienced so much challenge,
01:29and also had been exposed to so much difficulty over in that part of the world.
01:34And so it's brilliant to see you all here today, to be able to bring that all together,
01:39to highlight the long campaign for recognition that has been fought for so many years.
01:45But most importantly, just to make sure that we can say thank you to the service for everybody who served over the course of those years in this area.
01:55And that we can remember in events like this today.
01:58So thank you again for coming and I look forward to watching the further parts of the ceremony and recognising.
Comments