Chloe SmithMP for Norwich North
Chloe Smith
This week, Member of Parliament for Norwich North, Chloe Smith will be commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy by laying a wreath in a ceremony at Norwich City Hall, at the invitation of her constituents, 90-year-old veterans and organisers Jack Woods and Len Mann.
Chloe will also spend time visiting the graves of some of Norwich’s war dead, accompanied by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission who dedicate their work to ensuring each war grave is preserved. She will be visiting Norwich City cemetery and smaller local graveyards to learn more about the work of the Commission and to see where those fallen soldiers were brought home to rest.
To commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day, many Second World War veterans will be marking this historic occasion with visits to the places they served, supported by a Big Lottery Fund grant.
Funding is available for WW2 veterans through the Heroes Return programme, which offers WW2 veterans from the UK, Channel Islands and Republic of Ireland grants from between £165 to £8,140 towards travel and accommodation expenses to enable them their spouse and carers to make trips back to places across the world where they served, or make a commemorative visit in the UK.
To date, over £28 million has been awarded to more than 57,000 veterans, their widows, spouses and carers, for journeys in the UK, France, Germany, the Middle East, Far East and beyond.
Chloe comments:
“The anniversaries we are marking this year are not just a time for reflection and commemoration, but also an opportunity to ensure that through the work being done by organisations such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the memory of those times, and extraordinary people, is not lost.
“I urge anyone who may have been present in Normandy, or their families, to make contact with the Normandy Veterans Association or the Heroes Return programme as soon as possible. Jack Woods and Len Mann of Norwich are veterans and now extraordinary volunteers who, at the age of ninety, are doing service all over again by coordinating commemoration in both Britain and Normandy.
“I will be honoured as their local MP to join these Normandy Veterans in June in Norwich to remember respectfully the sacrifice their comrades made for our freedom seventy years ago.”