Honouring Rochdale’s veterans and renewing our national duty

This Remembrance season has been one of deep reflection and pride in the strength of our local community.

Our veterans, cadets and serving members of the Armed Forces did us proud at the Remembrance Sunday services at the Rochdale, Wardle and Littleborough Cenotaphs. Accompanied by our superb local brass bands, people of all ages turned out to honour the huge debt we owe to those who served our country. It was also a privilege to walk alongside councillor Ashley Dearnley at his final Wardle ceremony after more than forty years of outstanding service to our community.

Earlier in the week, I had the deep honour of placing a cross in Parliament’s Garden of Remembrance for Littleborough’s Les Brown, one of the last surviving D-Day heroes. His passing earlier this year, aged 99, was mourned right across Rochdale’s veterans’ community and beyond.

Les once said that as a 17-year-old storming the beaches he “wasn’t frightened” — even though “hell was going on around” him — because he “had a job to do.” He described seeing friends fall to enemy fire, unable to stop to help them, and yet carrying on. “I’m only an ordinary elementary school boy,” he said. But Les was far from ordinary. He showed extraordinary courage, like all those lads and men on that day — and we as a nation will forever be in his debt.

I also placed a cross for Middleton’s Lance Corporal Scott Hetherington, who died in a tragic accident in Iraq in 2017. Scott was just 22, a father-of-one, and his story is a reminder that the cost of service is still felt today.

This weekend I’ll again have the honour of laying the wreath at Rochdale AFC, joining supporters, players and families to remember those from the club and our town who made the ultimate sacrifice. The club’s annual remembrance ceremony is one of the most moving events in our local calendar — a powerful reminder of how deeply the spirit of service runs through Rochdale.

That spirit lives on in the brilliant veterans’ community we have here. From the Get Together After Serving (GTAS) CIC, who support ex-service personnel back into civilian life, to the Rochdale Veterans Breakfast Club and the Armed Forces Hub at Number One Riverside, these groups are the backbone of our local support network. Their friendship, compassion and commitment embody the best of Rochdale.

It’s fitting, then, that this week the Government has launched the first national Veterans Strategy in seven years, alongside the biggest investment in veterans’ housing for half a century. The plan includes £27 million for VALOUR, a new programme to give veterans easier access to care, housing, employment and wellbeing support, and £13.8 million over three years to tackle homelessness among veterans.

Across the North West there are more than 228,000 veterans, with more than 5,000 living in Rochdale Borough — around 3,000 in our constituency. I’ll be backing local bids to bring one of the new veterans’ support centres here, so that those who’ve served can get the joined-up help they deserve close to home.

Remembrance isn’t just about looking back. It’s about keeping faith with the living — making sure our veterans and their families are supported, valued and never forgotten.

Lest we forget.