I'm grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. My constituency of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire has a proud military history dating back over centuries. The town of Pembroke Dock has been home to all three constituent parts of our armed forces. For 113 years, from 1815, it housed a royal dockyard that built five royal yachts and 263 Royal Navy ships. For 120 years in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was also a garrison town that accommodated regiments from across the services, and for close to 30 years, in the first half of the twentieth century, it was a base for the RAF, and, at one point, was the largest operational base for flying boats in the world—home to the Sunderland. My constituency is also home to the Castlemartin training area, one of only two armoured vehicle training ranges in the United Kingdom; the Pendine firing range; and the Manorbier air defence range—vital sites in ensuring that our armed forces are trained to the highest calibre for the time when they are called up to active service.

With such a strong armed forces presence, my constituency is also home to a number of veterans.—veterans such as Barry John MBE, founder of the VC Gallery, which helps service veterans and those in the wider community by getting them engaged in a variety of art projects. And as we've heard this afternoon, earlier this year we welcomed Pembrokeshire's own Colonel James Phillips as the Veterans' Commissioner for Wales, who is already having a positive impact in supporting our veteran community.

This year has been a perfect example of the important role that our armed forces play both in areas of conflict around the world and also in peacetime and ceremonial duties at home: their role in supporting and training Ukrainian forces prior to and following Russia's invasion, and I also commend the armed forces for their professionalism and the precise execution of their duties in the sombre ceremony that followed the late Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's death.

I'm sure other Members, like myself, have close relatives or friends who have served or continue to serve. Remembrance Day provides us with an opportunity to say thank you: a thank you to them and to those who have laid down their lives in defence of our nation.

In closing, it would be remiss not to recognise the fantastic role that the Royal British Legion play in supporting past and present military personnel and their families. It is not just the commemoration on Remembrance Sunday and the selling of poppies, but also the help that they give to veterans, young and old, transitioning into civilian life. We are a better society for the selfless work the legion undertakes. As someone with relatives who fought on both sides of the second world war divide, when I lay my poppy wreath in the constituency on Sunday, I will take a private moment to think of them and all those who died and suffer during times of conflict. Diolch.