There remains a small number of UK veterans who served this country in the Armed Forces during World War I (WWI) to whom the nation owes a particular debt of respect and gratitude. In recent months, the death of a number of WWI veterans has raised the question of how the passing of the final veteran should be marked.I would like to take the chance to pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr.Ian Duncan Smith) who has spent a considerable amount of time and effort campaigning for the occasion to be marked in an appropriate manner.For the present, our priority is to celebrate these remarkable people during the time that they remain with us. However, the death of the final known WWI veteran will be a major milestone in our nation's history and should be marked as so. Her Majesty the Queen and the Prime Minister therefore support plans to hold a National Memorial Service in Westminster Abbey within two to three months of the death of the last known WWI veteran. This will commemorate not the death of the one individual, we sense from a number of the surviving veterans that this might be an intrusion into private grief, but the passing of them all.While that generation included those associated most directly with the horrors of that war, those who fought in the trenches of the Western Front, it also includes those who carried out their duties in other theatres, at sea and in the air and those engaged in vital support roles back home. We also owe a debt to those from other parts of the British Empire who played their part.We plan that the events of the day should reflect the laying to rest of the Unknown Warrior and the unveiling of the Cenotaph in 1920. The service will be preceded by a sombre procession. The overall aim will be for a reverential national event that is both commemorative and educational.To ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to be a part of this significant event we will be producing an educational resource pack. This will be distributed to primary and secondary schools to help their pupils appreciate the significance of the day.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wms/?id=2006-06-27a.5WS.7