Diolch. In November of each year we rightly take the opportunity to honour and mark the debt of gratitude we owe to the fallen, to our veterans and to our armed forces communities across Wales as part of the annual remembrance period. The year 2019 sees a number of significant anniversaries.

In June we commemorated the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-Day, a momentous moment that we now know marked the beginning of the end of war in Europe. Major commemorations took place both here in the UK and along the Normandy coast, as communities and countries reflected, recognised and remembered. My own great-uncle Tommy—Thomas Edward Oldfield of the Royal Army Service Corps—served in Belgium and France before D-Day. He was at Arromanches during the landings where he saw his uncle Arthur Brockley getting off a boat onto the shore. His uncle asked him, 'What are you doing here?' and he replied, 'The same thing as you.' Now aged 83, Tommy still attends his local cenotaph annually on Remembrance Sunday.

Last month also marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation of ‘s-Hertogenbosch by 53rd (Welsh) Division. The First Minister represented Wales during commemorative events there on 26 and 27 October. A hundred and forty six Welsh soldiers were lost during that one engagement. 

This August also marked the fiftieth anniversary of the UK armed forces' deployment on operations in Northern Ireland—the longest continuous operation in British military history.

This year, the Royal British Legion is inviting communities across Britain to 'Remember Together' the service, the sacrifice, friendship and collaboration of the men and women of Britain, the Commonwealth and allied nations who fought together in 1944.