THIS week saw me once again don my black suit, pin on a poppy, and prepare to lay a personal Parliamentary wreath on Remembrance Day. With three towns and 115 villages to cover I have quite a choice of locations but I decided several years ago that it was better to rotate annually between the ceremonies in my three major towns and attend one for the entire event rather than racing around trying to cover as much ground as possible.

This year I went to Tidworth, which is always a particularly moving event given the number of serving soldiers who attend each year. It was better than ever thanks to the decision taken to combine the military and civilian remembrance services in St Michael’s Church.

After the service we then processed smartly led by a military band to the site of the new war memorial that has been commissioned for the town.

Here with the Garrison Commander and Deputy Mayor, other units, cadets, Scouts, Brownies and many others I laid my beautiful British Legion wreath and observed the two minutes' silence – always the most solemn and moving time of my year.

We there then treated to the poignant and stirring lines from the Lawrence Binyon poem For the Fallen read by the presiding Sergeant Major, whose stentorian tones ensured that everyone attending could clearly hear the wonderful lines.

Everyone I saw locally last weekend was sporting a poppy – often now a knitted one or smart poppy pin – and it does seem to be a symbol that people are proud to wear regardless of race or religion.

I was especially heartened by the sight, in these divisive times, of the English and Scottish football teams defying the absurd FIFA ban on poppy armbands during their World Cup qualifying match although sadly the Welsh team did not feel they could risk it.

With so many armed forces personnel and their families living in the Devizes constituency, it has long been one of my priorities to ensure we have the resources and services they need and I was pleased to see that the funds are now flowing as part of the re-basing plans when I visited newly-expanded and thriving Bulford Kiwi school last week.

I also went to the Tidworth NSPCC centre for which I secured £800,000 of funding from the Libor penalty fund and joined in the 'pre-walkers' social group where the babies were oblivious to the excitement – a great and much valued centre that provides so much help and support for local families.