Not Glasgow

I lay in bed this morning listening to the recollections of the D Day veterans and now I'm watching the commemorations in Arromanches. The five of us went there in 1998. I will never forget being in the US cemetery at Omaha beach as Taps played.

My uncle arrived in Normandy, 12 days before his 25th birthday, on D Day +1, landing on Juno Beach in a flail tank as part of the Royal Scots Greys and the 4th Armoured Brigade. Falling in a shell hole meant he avoided being killed by artillery. He fought all the way to Germany but spoke little of it. He died 7 years ago.

In June 1944 my dad, 91, was in Palestine, and my mum, now 88, was a Wren in a naval PO in Norfolk. There are so few of these veterans left.

Banners have gone up in Holyrood Road marking the route of the Queen's banner and that the fact that the diving competitors and officials will be based in the Macdonald Holyrood Hotel.

Edit: watching more of the coverage tonight I'm struck by the fact that our Head of State and her man are also veterans of that conflict. She, now 87, was 18 on D Day and in the ATS from Feb 1945. He was 4 days off his 23rd birthday and in the Royal Navy having participated in the lead up to D Day. That bit of history must make it even more poignant for them to be representing the UK there today.