It is a great honour for me to be asked to give the Keynote Address at the St George’s Day Festival lunch in Lytham St Anne’s on 23rd April.

It will also be a pleasure to do so in the company of such outstanding sportsmen as Bill Beaumont and Jimmy Armfield. One of the charities which will benefit is the Army Benevolent Fund whose work was never more necessary than it is today.

I was a soldier myself half a century ago, and not a very good one. But from my later assignments in the world’s war zones I have developed a profound admiration for the soldiers of today. St George’s Day is a suitable occasion to pay tribute to them by supporting the ABF. The Army of today is much better than the Army I joined, not least because it no longer has Corporal 23398941 Bell M of the Suffolk Regiment serving in it!