This year we have commemorated the Centenary of the 1st day of the Battle of the Somme, which was the worst day in military history in terms of casualties. I have to confess that having visited the Battlefields with pupils from Archbishop Temple School on three occasions, I learned a lot about WW1; but the last trip which I led with nine adults, including some church members, had a much more profound effect on me.

The fact that we were able to visit places that the pupils were unable to see, such as the cells and the Execution Post at Poperinge and some of the sites off road, was particularly sobering and made this year’s TV coverage even more poignant. The recent TV programme ‘Both Sides of the Wire’ also highlighted the terrible mistakes made by the Allied leadership, giving rise to the phrase "Lions led by Donkeys"

On every one of my tours, I laid my Remembrance Cross at the grave of Private Singleton, who was one of the Lancashire Regiment which suffered so drastically at Sunken Lane on the first day of the battle. He lived at Nottingham Road in Deepdale and I often question whether he has family still in the area and if they know of his grave. There is a famous photograph taken at Sunken Lane and when I see it, I wonder if he is one of the faces on it.

On Remembrance Day we should remember not only the brave young soldiers who lost their life in battle, but also those who suffered what we now know as Traumatic Stress and were cruelly executed for their fear, mistakenly believed to be cowardice. We should also pray that one day we will see the futility and wrong of the wars and conflicts that still go on in the world and learn to accept and live with our differences.