13th November 2016 Colombo, Sri Lanka
On Friday 11 November, we held our usual ceremony for Remembrance Day. The Commonwealth War Graves enclosure of the Liveramentu cemetery on Torrington Road was as serene as ever. The headstones are a startling white against the immaculate green grass. The tropical sun beats down. Birdsong fills the two minute silence. The reading from Kenny […]
11th May 2016
In November 2014, I posted a blog about Msgr Hugh O’Flaherty, an extraordinary man who, during WWII, took risks for the Church, and saved lives. The next chapter in his story was written earlier this week, when family members, relatives of those he had saved and those who had worked with him, and others keen to […]
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19th May 2015
On Sunday 10 May I headed out of Bucharest to the tranquil wetlands of the Neajlov Delta south of the city. With representatives of the local community, an Embassy group took a boat through channels framed by rushes and yellow irises to a large billboard, emerging out of the water and backed by reeds. The […]
5th May 2015
It is rather poignant that the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day – 8 May 1945, the day that World War II in Europe officially ended – falls the day after the British General Election. It reminds us of the fundamental reason why Britain went to war in 1939, reluctantly but determinedly; to […]
4th August 2014
On 3 August 1914, Europe saw the start of the worst human disaster experienced up to that time when the German Empire declared war on France. The subsequent World War (#WW1) cost the lives of at least fourteen million people and shattered the fabric of society. The war set in motion a chain of events […]
5th May 2014
‘A nation that forgets its past has no future.’ Churchill’s words are still relevant today. On the 18-19 May HRH Prince Harry will visit Italy to attend a number of events commemorating the Allied Campaign in Italy during WWII, focussing on the 70th anniversary of the Battles of Monte Cassino. We are honoured that HRH […]
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25th February 2014
The usual approach of a blogger or commentator to a historical event is to look for modern-day comparisons; to use the event to support a link to a trend of interest or concern. But this approach cannot be adopted on the Holocaust. Because of its horrors, because of its sheer scale, there can be no […]
20th September 2013 Washington DC, USA
This week marked a significant historical moment for my nation—the 73rd anniversary of the Battle of Britain. A brief description of this titanic struggle: by the 18 of June 1940, following the chaotic evacuation of 330,000 men from Dunkirk, all of Britain’s forces had been driven out of France. Recognising the very great danger that now loomed, Winston Churchill—who had been Prime […]
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