Date: 8th June 2004
Released by: ANDREW TURNER

All who came after will recognize the D-day veterans and their comrades of the Second World War, as ‘the Great Generation’, said Island MP Andrew Turner.

Speaking after the weekend’s D-day commemorations, Mr Turner paid tribute to all those who took up arms to defend civilization. He said,
“The men and women whom we saw on television and at commemorative events this weekend are truly the great generation. People who were not even born at the time of the Second World War should never fail to recognize what they and their contemporaries sacrificed – domestic life, private pleasure, material comfort, as well as health, limbs and sometimes lives.

“This weekend we applauded them. Over the next year or so, leading to the VE and VJ-Day commemorations next year, we will continue to remember them. But we – and future generations – must also remember them in our daily lives. Away from the pomp of civic parades and services, the great generation lives, modest and self-deprecating about their part in those momentous years. Now, like many elderly people, they seek no more than peace and good health.

“We have a duty to do our best for them, as they gave so much for us. Because, very simply, without their courage and sacrifice, we would not be free.”