We will remember them

Remembrance Day keeps alive the tradition of recalling The Great War – a tradition that started over 100 years ago when people recalled the guns falling silent after the First World War.

These days, it can evoke images of Chelsea Pensioners, or of older veterans moving slowly past the cenotaph in London.

For some, the question is not ‘what’ do you think about during the silence, but ‘who’ do you think about?

I try to personalise the millions of souls taken early from this life by service.

I spend those two silent minutes thinking of my good friend Captain Rob Carnegie, with whom I served.

Rob was full of energy, excitement and cheer – he was the very definition of exuberance.

At a time when the Army was still busy with operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rob died on exercise, on snow-covered mountains in Wales in 2013.

It was striking at his funeral that his family did not blame the Army for Rob’s death.

They knew that he loved serving and lived by the adage: "train hard, fight easy".

But I do still find it sad that he was taken from us prematurely.

Rob used to challenge me about the threat posed by the governments of countries that do not enjoy our democratic freedoms.

Back then – almost 20 years ago – I was sceptical and jested with him that he was paranoid.

Rob used to see Russia as a serious threat - when few of us did – before the Russian invasions of Georgia and Ukraine.

I am saddened that I can’t have conversations with him now, about how he was right – and how Russia has moved aggressively against its neighbours in ways that Rob anticipated.

With the news on Wednesday morning of a Trump victory, I am concerned for the UK and Europe, for women in the US and for the health of our planet.

We can only hope that some of his more alarming rhetoric will not become US policy, but it does feel this week that the world may have become an even more dangerous place.

I know that many people in East Devon will have a friend or a relative who they will think of this Remembrance Day.

Whether you do, or whether you remember sacrifices borne by our forebears more broadly, we can be glad that we live in a democracy, where our freedoms have been hard-won by the men and women who lived before us.

In an increasingly populist era where the words "truth" and "lies" seem to regularly lose their meaning, we need to recall that democracy will continue to be hard-won.