The clocks have gone back, nights draw in, but as we enter November a flash of red once again adorns many a breast.

Remembrance Day is approaching, a time when we reflect on the sad loss of many British servicemen killed over the last 100 years, from the First World War to the present conflicts in the Middle East.

The first Poppy Appeal in Britain was held 95 years ago, when the physical and mental scars of the First World War were still fresh.

We have had almost a century to reflect on the message of those early British Legion veterans, which was to never forget - to remind us of the horror, the mud and the bombs, and hope that by remembering we would never see them again.

Most who bow their heads at memorials each November, as the last post sounds, will remember this message. 

However, in recent years a few have taken the appeal as a rallying point for a more drum-beating militarism, a call to arms rather than a reflection on the perils faced by those on the frontline.

It has also been used as a tool for nationalists, intent on using whatever they can to push an us-and-them agenda, which is even more dangerous at a time when Brexit has split the nation.

With this in mind, I would urge everyone on Friday, at 11am, or at a Sunday morning service, to bow their heads and remember the dead of all nations, killed in all conflicts.

And to hope for peace to come.