A MOST moving SSAFA Service of Remembrance at Salisbury Cathedral last Friday reminded us of the 260,000 British soldiers killed at the Battle of Passchendaele, many of them from the Wiltshire Regiment and the Wilshire Yeomanry exactly 100 years ago. (A similar number of Germans were also killed in the battle.) There was a curious poignancy about the lone piper playing the old Scottish Lament, Flo’ers o’ the Forest (which laments the defeat of the Scots by the English at Flanders Field in 1513) as he disappeared down the central aisle.

It reminded me that I was there when the coffin of the late Sir Edward Heath was borne up the same aisle with full military honours in 2005. (He took part in the Normandy landings, and thereafter commanded my own regiment, the Honourable Artillery Company.) The results of the Wiltshire Police investigation into the ludicrous allegations against him were announced last week. 118 people responded to their disgraceful call for ‘victims’ at the gates of Sir Edward’s house. 111 of them have been dismissed out of hand. The seven remaining allegations which would have been sufficiently credible, apparently, to warrant Sir Edward’s questioning ‘under caution’, if he were still alive, are a pretty mixed lot.

The most serious allegation – of a male rape in 1961 – was investigated by the Met Police two years ago and dismissed. How odd that Chief Constable Veale did not mention that. There is not a shred of evidence that Sir Edward was a paedophile, and I have written to the Prime Minister to ask her to initiate a Judge-led enquiry into the remaining allegations. Genuine allegations of abuse must be treated very seriously and fully investigated. But they are diminished by bogus cases such as Ted Heath’s.

Chief Constable Veale may have saved his skin for now over the £1.5 million, 20 officers’ investigation into Sir Edward. But there are a great many more questions to ask about his handling of Operation Conifer, most particularly about the way he seems to have allowed a presumption of guilt to hang over the head of this distinguished Elder Statesman. I thought that a presumption of innocence unless proved otherwise was one of the most basic of our rights? However, I support him for now because of his office – he is after all the Chief Constable.

Equally, I have never been one of Theresa May’s cheerleaders. But I thought that she handled the catastrophic conference speech with dignity and courage. What’s more, she is Prime Minister and deserves our support and respect just for that reason if none other. Our country is at a most difficult crossroads in our history, and one thing we do not need is the chaos of a leadership battle. That could have grave consequences for the Brexit negotiations (which may well be what a few from the remain camp are in fact seeking. Who is Grant Shapps anyhow?) Stable law-abiding society depends on such things as respect for our institutions – the army, government, Prime Minister; the rule of law and presumption of innocence. Of course there will be changes from time to time, but Especially at times of national turbulence we need certainty and stability amongst those institutions.

I return to Parliament determined to support Theresa May, and to seek justice for the late Sir Edward Heath.