The news that Squadron Leader Les Munro, the last surviving pilot of the famous Dambusters, had died earlier this week in his native New Zealand at the age of 96, provided a poignant reminder of a time that now seems like aeons ago.

In fact, it is just over 72 years since 133 RAF pilots and crew set off in their Lancaster bombers from RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire on the night of May 16^th, 1943 to bomb the Moehne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany, names firmly engraved in the memory of many a post-war British schoolboy.

Of the 133 airmen only 77 returned and whilst the mission largely achieved its objectives it didn’t cripple the German war effort as was hoped. The raid did however capture the imagination of the long-suffering British public and provided a massive boost to morale and national prestige after nearly 4 years of war and suffering.

There are now only two surviving crew left from the raid, old men now of course, and the death of Squadron Leader Munro is a reminder of how much we owe to all of those airmen both British and Allied, and of course to Roy Chadwick, the designer of the Avro Lancaster and Barnes Wallis ingenious inventor of the famous bouncing bomb which caused such damage to the dams.

Tomorrow, sees the 75^th anniversary of the  decision to evacuate the British army from the beaches of Dunkirk following its retreat from an advancing German army that had hitherto conquered all before it.

On May 27^th, 1940 the evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, began and lasted until June 4^th when over 300,000 British soldiers, along with several thousand of their French counterparts, were transported across the English Channel to safety.

Although they had to leave the vast majority of their weapons  behind them, the successful evacuation, by the Royal Navy and hundreds of small civilian boats, captured the imagination of the British public and proved an immeasurable boost to morale in what were undoubtedly Britain’s darkest days.

Of course, the respite was temporary and many major battles lay ahead, not least the Battle of Britain, just weeks later, when the RAF defied the might of the German Luftwaffe and safeguarded the British Isles from the grim fate that befell the rest of Europe. Dunkirk may well have been a retreat and a defeat but it felt like a victory.

Those little boats will live forever in the memory of this nation not least for the hope that they gave to a people who, prior to that successful evacuation, must have almost forgotten what the word meant.

Today is St George’s Day, the national day of England. But where are all the flags and why aren’t we enjoying a public holiday in celebration? Well, actually, we English don’t really make that much of a fuss. Perhaps it’s something to do with our famous reserve.

Most English, typifying the phlegm and understatement, for which we are renowned,  are content to quietly slip under the radar just muddling along in true English fashion. Times have changed of course and a patriotic Victorian would barely recognise the England of today, or would he?

The reserve is still there, so too the inventiveness and wit, though few of today’s English leaders would be able to match the wit of Lord Palmerston, the great 19^th century Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister.

Evidently a fawning French diplomat (aren’t they all?) once said to the great man “If I were not French, I would wish to be English” to which Palmerston replied “If I was not English, I would wish to be English”.

I’ll drink to that! In fact, in a couple of hours time I will be doing so in the company of forty like-minded, red rose-wearing Englishmen celebrating our national day by enjoying some roast beef washed down by flagons of English ale. Actually most of us will be drinking French and Australian wine but English ale sounds so much better, doesn’t it!

May I leave the last word (literally) to Lord Palmerston.  As he lay on his death bed, fussed over by anxious medical staff, he exclaimed  “Die my dear doctor, that is the last thing I shall do”! An English wit to the end!

A Happy Saint George’s Day to one and all!

Unsurprisingly, most of the major news stories of the last few days have focussed on the memorial services taking place throughout the land to mark yesterday’s Remembrance Sunday and tomorrow’s Armistice Day. The services are all the more poignant this year since, as we are all aware, 2014 is the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1.

In the midst of the tales of suffering, courage and death one particular newspaper article seemed to me to strike an important chord. It was an interview in the Sunday Times with Michael Morpurgo, the novelist and author of “War Horse” who said that every British school pupil should be given the opportunity to visit the cemeteries of the Western Front of Belgium and France with the cost being borne by the State if necessary.

His argument was that children, in many cases obsessed by computer war games, need “to understand the human tragedy of conflict”.

That has to be right. Though we must never forget, and should always honour, the memories of those who suffered and died in the terrible conflicts of the Twentieth century and beyond surely the best possible act of remembrance is to do all that we can to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated by future generations.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the battle of Hastings, a battle which took place in a year once imprinted on the brain of every English child with even the bare smattering of an education. Nowadays I’d be surprised if even a quarter of English people under the age of 20 could correctly name the year of the battle that shaped the future of their country for the next one thousand years or so.

It was always a big ask of King Harold’s English army to defeat the highly trained and fresh army of Guillame (William) of Normandy , just recently landed from across the Channel, when his own soldiers were exhausted just days after gaining a victory over William’s Viking allies at Stamford Bridge near York. The English had made a forced march over a distance of some 300 miles to meet the Norman threat and were hardly in the best of conditions to confront the second prong of the invasion of their country on that fateful morning of October 14th, 1066.

William the Conqueror’s victory spelt the end of Anglo-Saxon rule and ushered in a reign of terror with all subsequent resistance and rebellion crushed with ruthless brutality. Let nobody be in any doubt that the English suffered terribly under the cruel reign of the Normans and their harsh feudal system, aspects of which are still recognisable to this day in our anachronistic class system. Vast swathes of land were laid waste by the conquerors who wiped out whole communities all over England, particularly in the north. Such action is now referred to as ethnic cleansing or genocide.

We hear much of how badly the Irish, Welsh and Scots were treated by the “English”, meaning the ruling class of the England and a class that for nearly 300 years, until the late 14th century, spoke only French and treated English speakers as inferior serfs. By contrast we hear little of the sufferings of the English common folk. That could well be because the English have accepted it and moved on or maybe because it is just not in the English nature to wallow in sentiment and self pity.

October 14th, 1066 marked the beginning of the end of a largely peace-loving and inward-looking England concerned more by its own culture than by foreign adventure. The Norman conquest changed that forever and the country’s ruthless new rulers set out to subjugate the whole of the British Isles followed by conquest in France and beyond.

Maybe now, with the very real prospect of the dissolution of the United Kingdom, the wheel will turn full circle and England can revert once more to her pre-1066 position, a nation apart from her Celtic neighbours with an emphasis on England and all things English. Mere romance perhaps but a pleasant thought for many of us nevertheless.