Remembering the Battle of the Somme

I’ll be supporting British, Northern Irish, and Irish ceremonies in Thiepval, the Ulster Tower, and Guillemont to commemorate the Battle of the Somme, one of the darkest moments in British military history. Men ran towards gun fire through mud: a horrendous imbalance between man and machine, and in many ways the beginning of the warfare we have today.

If you are able, I recommend making the pilgrimage to the Somme. It is beautifully peaceful, and yet scarred by thousands of white headstones representing those who risked everything for this peace.

2025-06-17T15:21:48+02:00June 27th, 2025|

Dutch Veterans’ Day

The Dutch have a warm-hearted tradition of honouring their veterans on the last Friday of June: each city or town organises an event, usually a meal, to bring local veterans together. This year I’ve been asked to sing in Leiden as part of the city council’s programme. I’m really looking forward to it!

2025-06-17T15:21:40+02:00June 23rd, 2025|

Looking back on the 81st anniversary of D-Day

In My Heart

He Will Always Live,

The Best Of Sons

That God Could Give – Mother”

Headstone inscription of William J. Cliffe, aged 20, Vauville, France.

Traveling to Normandy for D-Day remembrance is something of a pilgrimage for the many visitors each year. Singing for remembrance is likewise more to me than simply performing. It is part of a bigger process in which I’m trying to understand why we go to war and what, if anything, can make the cost of war worthwhile. Meeting veterans and hearing their stories is part of this. Notably, no veteran I have met has ever said he regretted standing up against tyranny and terror by fighting. And yet the personal cost was great: the loss of friends, the years of sleepless nights and of having nightmares when still awake, the pain from injuries from more than eight decades ago.

This year, I sang for British, Canadian, French, and US ceremonies, ranging from the official UK ceremony at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver sur Mer organised by the Spirit of Normandy Trust to a ceremony at a single grave in Vauville. I drew up the Orders of Service for the ceremonies in Bayeux Cathedral and at Bayeux War Cemetery, working with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the City of Bayeux, the clergy, and, for the cemetery, the Royal British Legion. I sang at the farewell dinner of the Best Defense Foundation, in the presence of twenty-two US veterans in the magnificent setting of Caen City Hall, a former Abbey and the resting place of William the Conqueror. I also sang at the ashes of a British airman, Wally Trout, who, having found peace in Grangues in 1944, asked to be interred there. Both the large-scale ceremonies and the personal ceremonies had their impact.

One message was clear to me from the veterans. Our liberation and freedom should not be taken for granted.

With US Cpl. Jack Myers, Company B, 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion, attached with the 104th and 42nd Infantry Division

2025-06-17T15:21:32+02:00June 17th, 2025|

D-Day 81 • Best Defense Foundation

On 8th June I sang for 22 US veterans in the Abbaye aux Hommes, the city hall of Caen.

Best Defense Foundation, supported by Delta Airlines, Michelin, Next Gen, and a warm and wonderful team of volunteers, arranged the tour in a specially chartered plane from Atlantis to Deauville – a rare event as the airport does not usually receive trans-Atlantic flights.

The motto of the foundation is “Taking care of the ones who took care of us.”

Cpl. Jack Myers, Company B, 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion, attached with the 104th and 42nd Infantry Division

SSgt Jake M. Larson – “Papa Jake,” G3, V Corps

SSgt George K. Mullins, Co. C, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, author of “Foxholes”

Perhaps the greatest honour of all was being asked to lead “The Star-Spangled Banner” for the veterans’ farewell dinner.

And the memory that will stay with me forever was Jack Myers pure joy when he asked me to sing “How Great Thou Art.”

2025-06-17T15:21:15+02:00June 8th, 2025|

D-Day 81 • Glider Pilot Regiment Society

The glider pilots played a fundamental role in the Normandy campaign, transporting troops and equipment. Being towed in a mostly wooden glider was not without risk.

The Glider Pilot Regiment Society was established to remember the glider pilots, bring veterans and descendants together, and to pass on the history of the Glider Pilots. In 2022 they unveiled a memorial in Ranville, and today I supported their ceremony, along with the members of Massed Bands of the Pegasus Memorial.

2025-06-17T15:21:09+02:00June 7th, 2025|

D-Day 81 • Grangues

The story of the crew of the plane that was shot down near Grangues is tragic and awful. The surviving airmen were taken as prisoners of war and shot. The people of the commune hold a three part ceremony each year to remember the airmen, and the villagers who died, and finally a British airman called Wally Troutt.

Troutt parachuted over Grangues on 6th June 1944 when his plane caught fire. He was taken prisoner of war and marched to the Dresden camp. Miraculously, he survived and was liberated by Russian forces in April 1945. He returned to Grangues and Ranville to speak to children and share his message about war: never again.

Troutt’s wish was that his ashes would be taken back to Grangues so he could rest in the valley. He was honoured in the third and final ceremony.

2025-06-17T15:21:03+02:00June 7th, 2025|

D-Day 81 • Arromanches

The afternoon ceremony in Arromanches on 6th June concluded with a sing along. Thank you to Ken Hay for joining in “We’ll Meet Again,” and to Henry Rice for “Auld Lang Syne.” Watch until the end to see Henry’s special dance!

2025-06-17T15:20:56+02:00June 6th, 2025|
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