At dawn on 9th April I sang during a ceremony to commemorate the Battle of Arras. We gathered outside the Wellington Tunnels. Around twenty metres below us was a network of tunnels, which was expanded by largely Māori soldiers from the New Zealand tunnellers. Some of the tunnels are open for visitors today. Over 24,000 allied soldiers and officers sheltered there in 1917 before pouring out at dawn on 9th April in a surprise attack. The battle claimed over 250,000 casualties.

As the ceremony drew to a close, the sun rose and we heard birdsong and the gentle hum of Arras’s morning traffic. A peaceful contrast to the pandemonium and death of 107 years ago.

Last Sunday I sang during a poignant vigil at Vimy Ridge, France. As the sun set, graves stones were lit and we gathered to remember the fallen in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917 was the first battle in which all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force fought together. The large number of Canadian casualties mean that the battle has a significance place in modern Canadian history.

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial at Vimy Ridge has become a place of pilgrimage. The graves remind us of the human cost of war. The forests around the cemeteries, which are riddled with explosives planted over one hundred years ago, remind us of the cost of war on non-human nature.

For more information about the memorial, please visit the Friends of the Canadian Vimy Monument website.

Last Wednesday, I joined Gyles Brandreth and Dr. Hilary Jones to perform in the Guards’ Chapel, London, for the Commonwealth War Graves’ Foundation‘s Christmas carol service.

The foundation is the charitable arm of the war graves commission. Its aims include raising awareness of the work of the CWGC and the stories behind the graves so that no one is forgotten. It also raises funds to support the CWGC in caring for our war dead. Please consider donating to help their work.

For more photographs and information, please visit this webpage.

Last Sunday was Volkstrauertag, Germany’s remembrance day. In the German war cemetery in Ysselsteyn, the Netherlands, we stood still for the victims of conflict, surrounded by the graves of over 32,000 people.

It was an honour to sing and to be silent. 

On Saturday, 21st October, the Thiepval Memorial was reopened after careful and loving restoration by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It was a deep honour to sing at the opening ceremony. Pianist Lieselotte van Tol and I performed music linked to the Battle of the Somme. The event marked the 90th anniversary of the memorial, and the listing of the memorial, along with other war graves on the Western Front, as a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.

This year was our seventh trip to Normandy to support the commemorations of the D-Day landings. I was touched to see that there were more veterans present than in 2022, just after the COVID lockdowns. And yet it was also sad to notice those who had no made the pilgrimage.

My first ceremony was in Vauville, at a single grave of a young soldier who had been killed crossing the road to deliver a message. His senior officer had visited the grave annually after his death, and then the family of the senior officer continued to make the pilgrimage, and now the residents continue the tradition. It was moving and intimate to sing at a single grave and to focus on a single story: a contrast to the ceremonies in larger cemeteries where it is difficult to process the sheer number of casualties.

The Spirit of Normandy Trust gave their annual ceremony at the statue of Field Marshall Montgomery in Colleville-Montgomery, where I joined Jedburgh Pipe Band. The grandson of Montgomery, Viscount Henry Montgomery, was present and spoke before the ceremony.

In the evening, I sang at the midnight ceremony of the family of Major John Howard, the man who commanded the six gliders which landed during the night before 6th June, in order to capture two bridges so that the troops landing on the beaches could move in land. The beauty of this ceremony lies in its simplicity. The Ox and Bucks veterans used to meet at the landing place together with Major Howard and share their memories of that terrifying night. After Howard’s death, the family played a recording of one of the evenings, in which one hears Howard’s description and the reaction of the men. This year, Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence for the U.K., and French Defense Minister Sébastian Lacornu attended the ceremony.

In Bayeux Cemetery, the final resting place of over 4,200 people, the Royal British Legion had their annual ceremony. I joined the British Army Band Catterick to lead the hymns and to sing ‘Abide with Me.’ Although I have sung this song countless times, it was quite a challenge because it followed first-hand accounts from the veterans. Stan Ford described the sinking on his ship, HMS Fratton.

“HMS Fratton sank in four minutes, taking with her 31 of the crew of 80. I was lucky when so many of my shipmates were not and I often ask myself why me? HMS Fratton still lies about a mile off of Arromanches and I will always remember the crew that I served with, and I will keep coming back to Normandy as long as I can to do so.”

Mr. Ford received spontaneous applause after this speech.

In Arromanches, I joined the Band of Liberation for an outdoor concert. At the veterans’ parade and remembrance ceremony, on request of Adrian Cox, himself a former chorister, I sang “The Silver Swan” by Gibbons, a beautiful melody and a thought-provoking text. Behind us, in the sea, the debris from the landings is still visible.

On 7th June, in Grangues, 44 Canadian airmen are commemorated each year. Some died in a crash, others were taken prisoner of war and shot in the castle grounds. The village remembers these men alongside the residents who died in the war effort.

In the afternoon, a memorial was unveiled to the Glider Regiment: the only memorial in France. The Glider Regiment brought soldiers, equipment and supplies to France. Without them, the war effort would certainly have failed. Since we no longer use gliders, their work risks being forgotten. I hope that the memorial will help their legacy last.

On 4th May, Dutch Remembrance Day, the Dutch Merchant Navy association launched a website with a database of the stories of over 19,500 men and women who served in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War.

In the presence of descendants of the seamen, HRH Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb and MP Mark Halbers, Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, we learned more about the men and women who joined the war effort. Descendants told the stories of their ancestors.

I joined the Douane Orkest to sing hymns and songs during the ceremony, under conductor Björn Bus.

When the website was launched, boats in the harbour sounded their fog horns. For a brief moment, it felt like the desperation of a civilian vessel, manned by people not trained for war, making one last cry before steaming into battle. War is tragic and all are victims, and my heart went out to the men and women who fought against all odds so that those who remained could live free from tyranny.