Ninety-two years ago tomorrow, the guns fell silent on the Western Front, and the horror that was the First World War was over. Twenty-one years later, the Second World War broke out, proving that the war to end all wars was no such thing. Millions more lives, military and civilian, were lost, but by 1945, the Second World War was over too.

Today, there are no Bermudians left who fought in the First World War, and the number who took part in the Second World War dwindles each year. Their numbers are supplemented by some of the smaller conflicts that have followed, such as Vietnam, the two Gulf Wars and the ongoing war in Afghanistan. And there have been battles locally, sometimes between veterans, divided by those who served in battle overseas and those who remained to defend this Island, and divided by race to a degree as well.

In all of this, what cannot be forgotten are those who made the ultimate sacrifice and never returned to Bermuda. They are the most important people on Remembrance Day, and tomorrow we honour them.

It's worth remembering what those dead soldiers fought for. They went to war because, as the late Pat Purcell is quoted as saying in today's newspaper, "someone had to do it", or words to that effect, and to defend and promote ideals, which, even when honoured more in the breach than the observance, have been ideals which have raised the human condition. In doing so, the veterans helped to create a better world, one that may be imperfect still, but is better than the one they were born in, and they saved a world where hopes and ideals can take root and flourish. They paid with their lives so that we might have hope. We owe them an eternal debt.