There was a huge turnout in Horsham for Remembrance Sunday last week.

The face of Remembrance Sundays is changing. I will never forget as a child talking to a Somme veteran about the battle. From those able to talk of their Great War experiences we learned direct about the consequences of that awful war. I was privileged to be at the Cenotaph on Armistice Day in 2008 when the three remaining servicemen of that conflict attended for the last time.

Survivors of the Second World War are still happily with us. In Horsham we still have many who were combatants or served on the home front. It is however inevitable that as time passes, numbers dwindle.

The accepted wisdom was that as the wartime generation passes so the commemorations will fade.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Those attending Horsham’s commemoration came from every generation.

Due to our thriving Sea, Army and Air Cadet contingents and other groups the emphasis was in fact on youth.

The Rev Jimmy Young in St Mary’s reminded us that the start of the Great War is now closer in time to the Battle of Waterloo than to the present but that the need to remember and learn from history is critical to ensure we don’t repeat the same mistakes.

Many of those killed in the world wars and conflicts since were little older than the cadets parading on Sunday.

We must indeed never forget the lessons of history.

Jeremy Quin is Conservative MP for Horsham