Pray for peace between our nations
On 30th anniversary of Falklands war a plea from a sailor’s widow
THEY had been married for only two weeks when an Argentine attack cruelly robbed Margaret Allen of her husband in the Falklands War.
Able Seaman Iain Boldy was struck by an unexploded bomb dropped by a warplane while on board the Royal Navy frigate HMS Argonaut on May 21, 1982. He was 20.
Yesterday, during a simple but deeply moving service of remembrance on the 30th anniversary of Argentina’s invasion of the islands, Mrs Allen lit a single candle in memory of all 255 UK servicemen killed during the conflict.
It will be left alight for 74 days, there in the Millennium Chapel at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, until June 14 – the same length of time the war lasted until the British Task Force liberated the islands.
Relatives of the dead and Falklands veterans, some wearing their gleaming silver campaign medals, filled the small chapel for the ten-minute service. There was no sense of triumphalism, although all present agreed sending the Task Force had been right despite the sacrifices.
And it was a time for deep reflection on those who had laid down their lives serving their countries, for memories of the loved ones and the loyal comrades who never came home from the South Atlantic.
The Arboretum’s chaplain the Reverend Vic Van Den Bergh asked them to ‘pray for peace between our nations’ and also to remember those mourning the three Falkland islanders and the 649 Argentinians who died.
Mrs Allen fought back tears to discharge her duty with dignity as she lit the white candle on the altar. Afterwards you could hear the tremble in her voice as she spoke of the ‘privilege’ of being asked to do it on behalf of the Services’ community.
‘As I lit it, the pictures in my mind were all of Iain and his bright, handsome face,’ she said. ‘I thought of what might have been, but in my heart was a sense of hope, and a prayer that we’ll not have to go through it again.
‘Mostly I was sending love and gratitude to those who gave their lives and the veterans who came back, some with physical or mental injuries.’
Asked if prime minister Margaret Thatcher had done the right thing by leading Britain into war in 1982, Mrs Allen, 53, of Ashbourne, Derbyshire, said: ‘Once the Argentinians had invaded, it was the right thing to do, I don’t think we had any choice.
‘I lost everything in that moment when Iain died. How could it not be THE islanders do not commemorate the day of the Argentine invasion, preferring to mark June 14, the last day of the war.
Liberation Day is considered by many to be the most important of the year, when the islanders give thanks for being freed from the invaders and remember the 255 British troops who lost their lives in the 74-day conflict.
June 14 is a public holiday and this year it will be marked by a service at Christ Church Cathedral in Port Stanley attended by governor Nigel Haywood.
Around 150 islanders gathered on Sunday at a ceremony to mark 30 years since the islands’ Defence Force, a part-time volunteer organisation, was mobilised against the impending Argentine invasion. worth it?’ Of the recent tensions over the Falklands, she added: ‘I pray for a peaceful resolution and hope we don’t have to revisit those experiences.’
Mr Boldy was buried at sea. But his name is engraved on the Arboretum’s Armed Forces Memorial honouring all the UK’S 16,000 servicemen and women who have lost their lives since the end of the Second World War.
The monument, set in 150 acres of wooded parkland, was opened fourand-a-half years ago following a campaign by the Daily Mail which shamed the Lottery into granting £2.4million funding – and with the help of generous donations from our readers. It has become a place of pilgrimage for 300,000 people every year.
Mrs Allen, who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from her loss and is part of the Arboretum’s education team as well as working for the veterans’ health charity Combat Stress, said: ‘It is a blessing to have a place like this, in a beautiful setting, where you can reflect in peace.’
A new memorial at the Arboretum to UK servicemen killed in the Falklands is to be dedicated on May 20 in the presence of over 600 veterans.
During the attack which killed Mr Boldy, his comrade Able Seaman Matthew Stuart was killed when another unexploded bomb went into HMS Argonaut’s boiler room.
It was defused by bomb disposal expert Major John Phillips, who received the DSC for ‘courage of the highest order’. Major Phillips, from Coventry, lost his left arm in a later unsuccessful attempt to defuse a bomb on HMS Antelope in which his colleague James Prescott was killed.
The former Royal Engineer said: ‘Every day I shave in the mirror I am reminded of 1982 because I have lost my arm at the shoulder and I can see it. And every day, I have a quick moment for Jim Prescott and his family.’
Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Jones, known simply as ‘H’, was awarded the VC for charging Argentine positions defending the settlement of Goose Green during the first land battle of the conflict. He died in the act, but his men, the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment, went on to take all of their objectives against heavy odds.
His widow Sara Jones, 70, of Salisbury, Wiltshire, agreed Mrs Thatcher had taken the right course of action.
‘Can you imagine what things would be said now if we hadn’t responded to the cry for help?’ she said. ‘We stood up for what we believed in. We didn’t like to see a small country overrun by somebody who had very little claim to it.
‘The islanders have always been fiercely British and want to stay that way. I would like to believe that we would, if we could, do it again.’
ABOVE all else, the war that began with Argentina’s invasion of the Falklands 30 years ago yesterday was a Herculean test of the courage and professionalism of the British liberation force.
Against extraordinary odds, all three services rose to it with a heroism that struck the world with awe. And the victory that followed the 74-day campaign did more to restore this country’s self-belief than any event since the defeat of Hitler.
So, as we mark the anniversary, our first thoughts are with the men who fought in the South Atlantic and the families of the 255 Britons who never returned.
Truly, they did their nation proud, setting an example followed by our bravest and best in wars ever since, from Sierra Leone to Iraq and Afghanistan. But other factors gave special cause for rejoicing over our victory.
For unlike the messier conflicts of more recent years, this was a clear-cut struggle between right and wrong, in which British interests could not have been more directly engaged.
From the start, there was also a defined aim – to drive out the Argentine invaders – so that nobody could be in any doubt about when the fighting was over.
But if the 1982 war was an astonishing feat of arms, it was also a triumph of will on the part of a prime minister who put principles before political expedience.
Defying the fainthearts and naysayers all around her – braving even, as we now learn, the treachery of some in the U.S. administration – Margaret Thatcher believed only one thing mattered when Argentina invaded British territory: a monstrous wrong had to be put right. As history records, she was richly rewarded for staying true to her convictions. For victory brought her the 1983 Tory landslide, enabling her to oversee the Thatcher revolution that put the economy back on its feet.
Today, 30 years on, Argentina is rattling its sabre again in the South Atlantic. And, once more, there are many who doubt our ability to liberate the Falklands if the worst should happen. David Cameron has had a grim time of it, what with the rows over the Budget, the petrol panic and the cash- forinfluence scandal. But the toughest test of his principles could still lie ahead.