First World War Commemoration

Andrew Griffiths Excerpts

Thursday 7th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffiths (Burton) (Con)]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman about the good work that the CWGC does. He will know that many graves of Victoria Cross holders across the country are neglected and that only those soldiers who died in battle have their graves covered by the CWGC. May I commend to him the work of the Victoria Cross Trust, a charity, of which I am a patron, that does such good work in restoring the graves of VC heroes across the country?

[Mr Jones]

I commend that body. The CWGC’s remit is defined by its charter, but the important point is that the CWGC does look after all those graves in the UK that come under its charter. We are talking about either the traditional stones that people will recognise or private memorials. I pay tribute to councillors in the north-east of England, all of whose areas have now erected these green signs. I ask hon. Members of any party who wish to have them erected in their local cemeteries to contact me or the hon. Member for Broadland, as we will be only too willing to help. We have had a bit of a glitch with the Church of England—I am sorry that the Second Church Estates Commissioner, the hon. Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) is not here for this—which seemed to offer a protracted and bureaucratic reason for why we could not put these signs up. I am glad to say that some progress has been made, including in Durham, where the Archbishop of Canterbury, the former Bishop of Durham, seemed to cut through the red tape of the Church of England. It would be nice to see those tasteful signs on all churchyards, just to raise awareness, so that local people know that the graves are there.

Let me now deal with the issues raised by the Minister. I congratulate him on the work he has done on them, because I think he has got this right. There was a real danger that this could go wrong. As he said, it is right that there will be national and international commemorations, but the real focus has to come from below—I totally agree with him on that; local communities have to get involved. I pay tribute to the Heritage Lottery Fund, which is providing grants for local communities, a few of them in my constituency, including Park View school, which has just received a grant for doing a world war one project. I know that there are many others. Pelton Fell memorial park is applying for a grant and a number of other villages want to hold events. Sacriston, for example, wants to hold a village at war event.

I am passionate about ensuring that those who lost their lives are remembered, but another important aspect is what happened in local communities. In the north-east and County Durham, for example, the role of coal mining in the first world war was important, as were the roles of women in munitions factories and the munitions industry in Tyneside.

I am pleased that my hon. Friends the Members for Caerphilly (Wayne David) and for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) mentioned conscientious objectors, because the war was divisive. In the early parts of the conflict, members of the Independent Labour party were very much against the involvement of Britain in the war. There were some notable exceptions and some people broke away, including Clem Attlee, who fought bravely at Gallipoli. One of my predecessors, Jack Lawson, the Member for Chester-le-Street—who, by coincidence, was a member of the Imperial War Graves Commission in the 1920s—fought on the western front, even though he was an ILP member.

There are opportunities for communities not only to remember the first world war but to do some good things about their own history and to ensure that people remember the contribution that everyone made to the war effort. When I was the veterans Minister, I had the privilege of meeting Harry Patch, Bill Stone and Henry Allingham. Sadly, I also attended their funerals. As the Minister said, they were the last living link to the first world war, which, as my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley Central (Dan Jarvis) said, has now passed into history. This is a great opportunity to ensure that future generations not only do not forget but know of the important role that their local communities played in that important part of our great nation’s history.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Griffiths (Burton) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me at the end of the debate; I was in a Committee meeting and so was unable to contribute earlier.

Burton can take the credit for having been home to the most decorated non-commissioned soldier of the first world war, William Coltman, who won not only the Victoria Cross but the distinguished conduct medal and bar and the military medal. He won those amazing medals as a pacifist. He was a stretcher bearer because his religious beliefs prevented him from fighting, but he was a brave men. He is a man that Burton is very proud of.

I speak as a patron of the Victoria Cross Trust. As has been mentioned, there are hundreds of graves of heroes across the country, including VC winners, that are not tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission because those brave servicemen died after they had been decommissioned and when they were no longer in the Army. It is a terrible shame for our country. In my opinion it is a national disgrace that the graves of those men who did such great acts of bravery and valour on behalf of this country and democracy are not tended. We see these crumbling gravestones and overgrown memorials to such brave men, and it is time that we looked at what we can do about them.

The Victoria Cross Trust is a charity that was established by a gentleman called Gary Stapleton. With no public money, he and his band of volunteers have restored very many graves, up and down the country, of VC heroes. It is time that we looked at what we could do as a Government to try to support them. They do not ask for huge amounts of Government funding, but I am sure there must be ways we can help. This is the big society in action—people going out in the community, raising money to restore the graves of some of the bravest men of this country. We should commend them and do all we can to support them.