A time to remember those who gave everything | Burnley MP column

Welcome back to my weekly column, where I talk all things Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield.

I want to start this week by talking about the success of Burnley’s Biggest Ever Jobs Fair. We welcomed an officially recorded 1,460 people through the doors, with 1,500 jobs available and more than 40 employers joining us.

That is a fantastic achievement, and I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped make it happen. My team in the constituency office, our sponsors Safran Nacelles and BFC in the Community, and particularly our brilliant local team at Burnley Jobcentre, who put in hours and hours of work alongside us to bring the event together.

It was a real team effort, and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who played their part. Most importantly, I hope that for the many people who came along, it was an opportunity to find a job, explore a new career or take that next step.

Alongside celebrating what we can achieve as a community, this week has also been a time for reflection, as we came together to mark Remembrance Sunday.

Remembrance is one of the most important occasions in our national calendar. It gives us an opportunity to pause, to reflect and, above all, to acknowledge the extraordinary sacrifices made by those who served our country. We remember those who never returned home, those who were wounded, those who lived with the consequences of conflict, and those who continue to serve today.

On Sunday, I attended Burnley’s Annual Service of Remembrance at the Peace Garden on Croft Street, where I laid a wreath and joined members of our community in paying their respects.

Across our area, services were also held in Padiham, Brierfield, Briercliffe, Towneley Hall, Hapton and Worsthorne. I am grateful to Town Councillor Alun Lewis, Austin McBride, Pete Coles, Daniel Armatige and a representative from Friends of Worsthorne for standing in on my behalf at the respective services. Following the Burnley service, I also visited the memorial at Towneley Hall to lay a wreath privately and pay my respects.

Earlier in the week, I planted a cross in the House of Commons Remembrance Garden on behalf of Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield, as I have done for the past two years. It is important that our communities are represented in this national act of remembrance.

This year, we also mark 110 years since the Battle of the Somme. The scale of the loss was unimaginable. British forces suffered approximately 420,000 casualties during the campaign.

More than 19,000 men were killed on its first day alone.

Among those who went to war were the men of the 'Pals Battalions'. In Burnley, entire factory shifts, families, fathers and sons, friends, and football teams enlisted together in Z Company of the 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment. They went to war alongside the people they knew and loved.

At Serre, the battalion suffered devastating losses.

Of the 700 men who went into battle, just 116 answered the roll call afterwards.

Behind those figures were individual lives, families and futures. These were men from our streets, our workplaces and our communities. Their sacrifice is not simply a matter of history; it is part of the story of Burnley itself.

We owe it to them, and to every generation who has served since, to remember. Not just on one Sunday in November, but throughout the year.

We will remember them. God bless our brave men and women.

“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”