Today is the centenary of the beginning of The Battle of the Somme.
Quite a few years ago we visited part of The Somme Battlefield, unfortunately it was before digital cameras. My maternal grandfather was at the Somme and survived so I was glad to be there and see just a wee bit of the area. It was wet when we were there and so we got a bit of that muddy experience and disconcertingly the mud at the Somme is very red, it must have a very high iron content.

My grandfather was one of those crazy lads who lied about his age to volunteer for the war and I was only two years old when he died in 1961, having lived his whole life dealing with ill health due to being gassed. But one thing has been handed down from him to me and that is the fact that he told his family never to believe any British government, and I certainly have always heeded that warning. In fact I would go further and say – never trust or believe any British politician.

The Thiepval Memorial has 72,246 names on it of missing men who were killed in the Battles of the Somme and have no known grave.