My Week 14/11/18

One of the outstanding images of the Armistice Day centenary has been the silhouettes of Tommies which have appeared all over the country as part of the ‘There But Not There’ campaign.

The initiative aims to educate all generations about why so many young men made the ultimate sacrifice, and to raise funds to help heal those suffering from the hidden wounds of war.

One of the Trustees of the campaign is West Sussex resident and former Mayor of Arundel, Michael Tu, and I met him last week to help promote the campaign.

It was also a very special pleasure to deliver a birthday card to my constituent Dilys Armistice Fox who had her 100th birthday on Sunday.  Dilys, who is a resident of the Salvation Army’s Villa Adastra Care Home in Hassocks, was born on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918.

On Sunday I will attend a special service of remembrance to mark the centenary of the Armistice in St Nicholas’ Church, Arundel, which will also be attended by representatives of the armed forces.

One of the features of the Church is the medieval grille which joins yet separates the adjacent Catholic Fitzalan Chapel from the Anglican Church.

Sunday’s service is a joint one between the churches, and there will be a procession through the grille into the Fitzalan Chapel for an act of remembrance.

It was wonderful to see The Queen looking so well at the Cenotaph and Westminster Abbey remembrance services.  This week in the Commons we paid tribute to Prince Charles on his 70th birthday.

I believe we are extremely fortunate to have an heir to the throne who has done so much to promote important causes, especially through the Prince’s Trust which helps young people, and has been ahead of his time on issues such as the environment.

On Friday morning I will visit the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to   speak about TB and the recent High-Level Meeting in which I took part at the UN.

I will then travel back to the constituency to visit Pulborough’s cub scouts as part of UK Parliament week, which aims to engage people with Parliament.

On Saturday morning I will hold constituency meetings and in the evening I will attend a fundraising event at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in aid of the Pallant House Gallery.

If you would like to get in touch with me, please e-mail me at nick@nickherbert.com.