Students from Pent Valley Technology College in Folkestone, were part of the historic visit last Thursday by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, to the First World War military cemetery at Tyne Cot, near Passchendaele in Belgium. This was the first occasion that the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and of Ireland, had together paid their respects in this way to the fallen of the war. In 1917 this location saw some of the bloodiest fighting and Tyne Cot cemetery is the largest maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the world.
The Pent Valley students; Liam Wetherell, Shafee Gurung, Izabela Nagyova, Robert Griffiths and Nikola Kakurova; were conducting a study trip along with a school from Belgium that they have been working with to research how the First World War affected their communities. I introduced the Prime Minister to the students, and he was interested to find out more about their research and what the war meant to them. The students also showed David Cameron the graves of two soldiers from our local East Kent regiment; Private E.W. Smithers and Private B.E. Worley; who were both killed in action in August 1917. Pent Valley is going to be working with its students to help them find out more about the lives of some of the individual soldiers who fought in war and who are remembered at cemeteries like Tyne Cot and on local memorials. There are a considerable number of resources available online now to help with this, and through the Folkestone Step Short project we will be launching in the new year a digital archive of the visitors books that were kept in the harbour during the war; which were signed by over forty thousand servicemen.
I first visited the Tyne Cot cemetery with my school on a study trip when I was 15 years old. This incredible place, with over twelve thousand graves and a memorial wall recording the names of over 30,000 soldiers whose remains were never found, made a lasting impression on me. I hope that the students from Pent Valley will also always remember their visit. As we approach the period of the First World War centenary, I hope that schools will take advantage of the government funding available to support study trips to the battlefields and cemeteries of the war. On a cold and muddy day last week it was a humbling experience to stand on the ground where so many had fought and died in the most bitter conditions it would be possible for anyone to endure.
One hundred years ago, families gathered for Christmas in 1913 not knowing that the world would soon be torn apart by war. For some it would be their last Christmas together. As we celebrate Christmas this year we should spare a thought for those who fought for the peace we share today.