In memory of all who fought and died

Taken from Virgin media:

'Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier of the First World War, who has died at the age of 111.

Mr Patch, known as the Last Tommy, passed away peacefully just before 9am at Fletcher House nursing home in Wells, Somerset.

He had become Britain's oldest man when another veteran of the war, Henry Allingham, died a week ago on July 18, aged 113.

The only remaining known British-born veteran of the First World War is now Claude Choules, 108, who served in the Royal Navy and now lives in Perth, Australia.

Mr Patch, a machine-gunner, served in the trenches as a private from June to September 1917 and fought in the battle of Passchendaele in which more than 70,000 British troops died. He was born on June 17 1898 and grew up in Combe Down, near Bath.'

We heard this on the news on our way home from the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds. Each visit I am moved and appalled by what countless men and women have done throughout time and that we still fight wars and each other on the streets. Will it ever end?

I say thank you to all who fought for mine and others freedom but the cost is always too high.