Battle of the Somme: Centenary

Lord Faulkner of Worcester Excerpts

Monday 14th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Lab)]

My Lords, judging from the large number of speakers in this debate, the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, has certainly caught the interest of the House. I congratulate him on his initiative for the debate and on his very moving and inspirational speech.

I declare three unpaid interests. I am co-chair of the War Heritage All-Party Parliamentary Group, a member of the Government’s World War I Centenary Advisory Board and patron of the Guild of Battlefield Guides.

I start with the warmest of compliments to everyone who has so far been involved with the centenary programme. The range of events that since 2014 have already taken place in the United Kingdom and on the battlefields involving the general public, the inclusiveness of groups participating—particularly the large number of schoolchildren, the solemn programme of commemorations in churches and cathedrals, and the depictions of what life was like on the home front during those terrible times—have all been inspirational and demonstrated that the public’s imagination has been captured. The mood and tone of those events have been exactly right—something that many of us were worried about at the beginning of the programme but are now completely satisfied by.

As time is so limited in this debate, I shall leave it to the Minister to speak in detail about the programme surrounding the Somme centenary, particularly the events in Manchester on 1 July and the visit to Thiepval, in which I hope to take part.

I want to commend the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Somme Community Initiative, which we shall be launching here in the House on 11 April. Its aim is to reconnect the British public with the 300,000 war graves in the UK. Over the years, these graves have effectively become invisible to the public. A CWGC pilot study has encouraged community groups, schools, old people’s groups, veterans’ groups, football clubs and so on to visit their local CWGC site, do some research on the men, have a small event to remember them, and ultimately continue to champion the sites. It complements the programme of visits by MPs and Peers which we in the all-party group helped to get under way in 2014 and which has proved so successful that it is being repeated.

Now the CWGC has funding from DCMS and the Department for Communities and Local Government to undertake a much larger project from July to November this year which involves 141 community events linked to the 141 days of the Somme. In addition, the commission tells me that it would welcome many more visitors at its 230 cemeteries on the Somme, as some are visited only rarely. I hope that we will hear more detail from the Minister when he replies.