A controversial viewpoint Andy, but entirely fair – there are many, many examples of forgotten campaigns and personal sacrifice and each is equally deserving of recognition.

‘Our’ generation is prone to fiddling with history to make events in the past fit in with our idea of right and wrong as we see it today – for example, recent apologies over the 19th century slave trade. In fact, Alan Turing broke a law which was in force at the time of his offence – ridiculous by today’s standards, but a lawful prosecution at the time.

However, what we can do is to try and correct oversights and errors in the recent past, and by that I mean within living memory. I see little real merit in pushing for retrospective recognition for participants in the Peninsular War for example, but to an elderly gent (or lady) who lived through their own particular hell on behalf of their country we can at least ensure their experiences are recognised formally whilst they are still able to accept the appreciation of a grateful nation.

To horribly misquote Edmund Burke: “All that is neccessary for brave deeds to be forgotten is for good men to do nothing”.