Rebecca Smith

I am incredibly grateful to all those who have contributed today and to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for helping to prepare for the debate. We have heard many individual names and about people of different nationalities and religions. We have heard about the role of women, the pals battalions, sports teams, miners and medics, and we have heard examples of immense bravery. Reflections about the human cost of war have brought emotion across the Chamber as we have shared the sheer scale of the losses at the battle of the Somme and allowed it to sink in again. One hundred and ten years ago, the young men who fought on the Somme would have had no idea that Members of Parliament would still be speaking their names in this Chamber more than a century later. Perhaps that is exactly what remembrance requires of us. The most meaningful thing that we can do as we approach 18 November, the 110th anniversary, is simply to tell their stories again, because remembrance cannot be passive; it has to be renewed by every generation. Those who fought on the Somme entrusted their memory first to their families, then to the memorials and cemeteries that were built in their names, and ultimately to us and all those whom we represent. We will remember them. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the 110th anniversary of the battle of the Somme.