On Battle of Britain Memorial Day Melton has remembered ‘The Few’, the RAF pilots who fought and died defending our country during the Battle of Britain in 1940, defeating Hitler’s Luftwaffe and keeping us safe from Nazi invasion.
Edward had the huge privilege, along with many others in the town, of attending Melton’s Battle of Britain Memorial Day events and commemorations – the service in St. Mary’s; joining the Mayor, Cllr Tim Webster, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, and representatives of the Royal British Legion, RAF Association and the Town Estate for the parade in the market place; and then the very moving wreath laying in the Memorial Gardens.
It can be all too easy, 84 years on, for people to forget just what peril our country and our entire way of life was in back in the summer of 1940, and the huge sacrifices made by ‘The Few’, backed by the many in other parts of the military, in factories, in the fields, in other vital roles, and by the British people themselves, in the Battle of Britain. Many of those pilots in the spitfires and hurricanes who fought the German Luftwaffe in the skies about England between July and October 1940 to protect our country from invasion, had only just left school. So it was particularly moving to see on parade in Melton RAF cadets, only a few years younger than those pilots would have been.
Edward commented: “With the passage of time the story of the sacrifice, the determination, the bravery, and the service of that wartime generation remains as important to us today, and to our lives, as it was back then. So events like those in Melton on Battle of Britain Memorial Day are ever more important to remember, to commemorate, and to help keep the story of ‘The Few’ alive for new generations. Events like this take a huge amount to put on, and I wanted to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to all those who helped organise and took part in such a special and memorable day.”
