Seventy five years ago there was a party that was heard around the world. In the Allied nations, populations erupted in celebration at the surrender of Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe.

It was a moment of relief for all those in the Allied nations after six years of total war which had brought destruction to an entire continent. Our cities had been bombed, countless civilians and military personnel had died or been physically or mentally wounded and Britain expended an entire Empire in order to defeat one of the worst tyrants the world had ever seen.

Today we remember that time. We remember the service personnel who gave their all to keep Britain out of the clutches of the Nazi menace and the civilians who also suffered both from enemy attack and from the disruption that the War brought.

We remember the sacrifices and the triumphs of a generation that has now sadly nearly all passed on. My child can sleep safe in his bed because of the actions and determination of Britons and those of other Allied nations who gave everything for generations that were as yet unborn. We remember the time, before the Americans entered the War after Pearl Harbour, when Britain and its Empire stood alone against a tyrant who had devoured large parts of the continent of Europe. But for the valour and determination of the British people and others from the Empire, we also would have been enslaved and mass murdered by the Germans as had happened to the citizens of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and other nations. We stood alone, with so little chance of success it seemed, that it looked as if Britain would fall as others did. But we did not fall, we fought. We fought for our lives, we fought for freedom and we fought for justice.

We must remember our history and the sacrifice of previous generations for to forget history is to create the ideal environment for new tyrants and new threats to freedom to emerge. We should also not forget that for some nations, those of Eastern Europe, the War didn’t end in 1945 but was finally laid to rest in 1990 when the cruel domination of them by the Soviet Union, that came about because of World War II, finally passed into history and those nations also became free.

The supposed ‘thousand year Reich’ desired by the Germans a Reich that enslaved and murdered millions only lasted twelve years. The destruction of that monstrous enterprise, and the death of the tyrant in charge in a dingy bunker in Berlin, was not brought about by wonder weapons, but by ordinary people, some in uniform and some on Civvy Street, fighting for their lives, my life and the life of my son. I remember with gratitude and humility what those who I never knew did for me.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.