Battle of the Somme: Centenary

Lord Bew Excerpts

Monday 14th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bew (CB)]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, for his role in initiating this debate and for his excellent and striking opening speech. On 1 July 1916, the Ulster Division went over the top at the Somme, with dramatic, painful and horrifying effect. Two days later, Captain Wilfred Spender, an Englishman and Harrovian, wrote in the Times:

“I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday … as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world”.

It is true that very few families in Northern Ireland were untouched by the tragedy of the Somme. Harold Cox, a former Liberal MP, spoke in Belfast after the war. His home was in Kent and,

“when the wind was from the south, at night they could hear the noise of guns booming on the Somme. Ulstermen on the Somme were fighting for the defence of Kent”.

When I draw attention to these things I do not want us to forget—far from it—the role of the Irish nationalists. The noble Lord, Lord Lexden, has already referred to the death a few weeks later of Tom Kettle, a nationalist MP. If one looks in the Great Hall, it is remarkable to find recorded there the deaths not just of nationalist MPs but of their sons. The losses were proportionate to those of the mainstream English parties. It gives an indication of the scale of the tragedy at that time.

One of the most remarkable things to happen in Ireland in recent years, and one of the signs of a real change of public mood and a move towards greater reconciliation between north and south, is the way in which, 10 years ago, the Irish Republic for the first time held a major commemoration for those who died at the Somme from both main traditions.

It has already been mentioned that the Prime Minister has an advisory committee on the First World War. I was delighted to speak to that committee on the subject of 1916. While the rising of 1916 in Dublin was not a political project I support or particularly admire, none the less I have no difficulty in explaining the proud motivation and bravery that led into it. I was very happy to talk to the committee on that subject. I would be very happy if the Minister was able to say to me that he will refer to the advisory committee chaired by his ministerial colleague in another place the content of the speeches that are made in this House tonight.