Battle of the Somme: Centenary

Earl of Shrewsbury Excerpts

Monday 14th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Shrewsbury (Con)]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend on securing this timely debate. My points will be very brief. As a small boy living with my father in Switzerland, every year he took me to visit many of the countless war cemeteries from the Great War, and in particular the Somme. These days I return often, and I have taken my children and my friends to experience these special places that are so beautifully tended by the War Graves Commission.

At the memorial to those who fell at the battle of Loos and many others, I find grave after grave and inscription after inscription to those from the North and South Staffords who made the ultimate sacrifice. I would guess that the reason my father was so keen to visit these wonderful graveyards with me was because his head forester, George Greatholder, lost four of his brothers on the first day of the battle of the Somme—and George himself was awarded a military medal and bar.

Staffordshire is my mother county and it is the home of the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas. Is my noble friend the Minister able to tell me what plans that excellent establishment has to commemorate this special centenary on behalf of the nation? Bearing in mind the sacrifice made by a great number of animals in the service of man during the Somme—in the main horses and dogs which were used for transport and communications—is any lasting memorial planned to commemorate them?

Finally, Staffordshire is also home to a large German war cemetery on Cannock Chase. We must never forget the sacrifice made by our enemies in that appalling conflict.