In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky, The larks still bravely singing fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.

So reads one of the most moving, and most well-known, lines of Great War poetry.

It was written during the First World War, to mark a lost generation of fathers, husbands, sons and brothers.

On Remembrance Sunday, I will be attending the annual ceremony at the Cenotaph, to mark my respect, and to give my thanks, for the immeasurable sacrifice made over the years by all those brave servicemen and women in many conflicts who have fought to protect our values and our freedoms.

As a famous inscription says of them, ‘for your tomorrow we gave our today’. Many of us across the country over the past days and indeed weeks have proudly bought and worn a poppy, on what is, this year, the 99th anniversary of the end of the Great War.

This was the hardy flower that somehow managed to survive and flourish in the devastated Ypres battlefields of World War One.

The work of The Royal British Legion – supported by funds raised from the sale of poppies – is as vital now as it ever was, both in helping members of the Armed Forces community and in keeping alive the memory of the sacrifice of our brave soldiers.