Aldwick's battle day padre

The Rev Peter Millam and his wife will be joining many of those who served in the conflict on Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall for the national service.

Today marks 25 years since the fall of Port Stanley to British forces and the liberation of the Falklands Islands from the Argentinian invaders on orders from General Galtieri's military government.

Mr Millam's maternal grandparents were pioneer settlers in the colony and his mother was born on the islands. He has officiated at the Falklands Battle Day commemorations at the Cenotaph in London on the second Saturday in December every year since they began in 1979. The Battle Day commemorates another Falkland Islands conflicts.

Between 1966 and 1970, he was the senior chaplain at Christ Church Cathedral on the Falklands and the last chaplain of HMS Protector and the first chaplain of HMS Endurance.

He also helped to run the FI Broadcasting News Service and was the first person to broadcast to the islands from Bush House on the outbreak of hostilities in April 1982.

He was privileged to return to the islands ten years later with the Archbishop of Canterbury for the anniversary events and cathedral centenary celebrations.

Mr Millam, of Willowhale Avenue, said today's latest anniversary of the end of the conflict would produce a jumble of thoughts. Some people would recall the fighting with moments of agony or panic. Others would remember service comrades who were killed in action and more who had since committed suicide.

'For these and their families, this commemoration spells sacrifice, the sacrifice of young lives spent in the cause of freedom, justice and peace,' he said.

'For the grieving families in Argentina, this commemoration too spells sacrifice, the sacrifice of young lives spent in a lost cause of mistaken history, overt belligerence and rampant nationalism to disguise government corruption and thousands of political murders. However, the mothers of '˜the disappeared ones' are thankful for the change of government that the defeat of Galtieri brought about.

'And so today we remember people and honour the dead, but we do not honour war. We honour those who remain. Our armed forces are a force for peace, not war, but '˜if push comes to shove' as it did on April 2, 1982, we will fight for peace and justice.

'The memories of that conflict are powerful and significant but we do not want to be trapped in the past.'