CONTENTS

politics first | Corridors
ADVERTORIAL
Commemorating the Great War’s
centenaries and achieving a lasting
legacy for them
Dr Andrew Murrison, Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire
If the root cause of war is political division, the anniversary
of its battles too often picks at the sore. Think of the
Battle of the Boyne in 1690 at one end of Europe and
the Battle of the Field of Blackbirds in 1389 at the other.
We are now at the mid-point of the centenary of the first
of the two most terrible wars our continent has ever
known. What has it achieved?
70
On 1 July, between the UK’s referendum
on 23 June and the change in Prime Minister
on 13 July, Britain came together to mark the
first day of the Somme, the bloodiest battle
in our military history. Not only did it provide
a unifying respite domestically, it was also
an opportunity for Europe’s political leaders
to stand shoulder to shoulder at a fractious
time. The first duty of those gathered in the
rain beneath Lutyen’s towering memorial to
the missing at Thiepval, on 1 July, was to
remember the dead but it would have been
remarkable had they not been reflecting, too,
on the latest twist in European history that had
just been delivered by the descendants of
those memorialised.
The centenaries of the battles which
make up the Great War observed by the UK
in its national programme so far – Gallipoli,
Jutland, the Somme – have reunited allies
and belligerents in the commemoration
of shared history. That is not to erase
convictions about national right and wrong in
a misguided exercise in political correctness
but acknowledging the failings in our
common human state that lead to conflict.
The experience has been wholly positive.
History has also been bringing people
together in unexpected places. So, for
example, the Somme, previously very much
an exclusive part of the Unionist tradition in
Northern Ireland, has been shared, reflecting
the very large number of young men etched
in sandstone whose ancestors are part of the
nationalist community.
A Somme that saw the Ulstermen’s heroic
storming of the Schwaben redoubt also
saw the 16th (Irish) division’s Guillemont
and Ginchy. The historical reality is that a
hundred years ago the Somme touched
everyone in this archipelago from Lerwick
to Londonderry, Limerick and Land’s End.
Commemoration of shared history, even
where complex and nuanced, has the power
to unite. The key is to observe history
respectfully and without varnish and, finally,
to refuse to be bound by it.
A minority view is that we should not, in
any event, be raking up the past and certainly
not using significant helpings of public money
to do so. After all, what does remembrance
mean given that none of us now can
remember anyone who fell during the Great
War? For me, remembrance really means
reflecting on loss and missed opportunity.
That makes it eternal. Society is the poorer for
the fallen not having enriched the last century
through the arts, science, medicine, business
and even politics. That loss, of course, has
been equally felt on both sides of the Great
War’s great divide and its impact has been
worldwide, regardless of national borders.
The historian A.J.P. Taylor famously
observed that idealism perished on the
Somme. I do not agree. The Somme is,
indeed, etched into the national psyche like
no other battle before or since because it
was the ultimate human mincing machine.
But if Taylor was right and idealism went
with the million plus that died in the 141
days of the Somme offensive, why, 100
years on, do we engage with undiminished
fervour in remembrance, reflection and the
contemplation of the Great War’s sheer,
bloody awfulness? The fact that we do, and
that this year’s key commemorations of the
centenaries of the battles of Jutland and the
Somme were accessed by so many people,
suggest that the idealism that Taylor spoke of
is still very much alive.
It seems to me that as Europe enters a
period of opportunity and risk unprecedented
in our lifetimes, the commemoration of
shared history in the form of this most terrible
chapter for our continent is, in its small way,
inculcating the ideals of unity and common
ground between and among people.
Now, would that not be a great legacy
for the Great War’s centenaries and a fitting
tribute to its dead?
Dr Andrew Murrison served as David
Cameron’s Special Representative for the
Centenary of the Great War