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.