THIS year, 2018, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

On the weekend of Armed Forces Day on Saturday, June 30, I decided to travel to Belgium and France to pay my own tribute to those who lost their lives in that terrible conflict of 1914-1918.

We owe our armed forces a deep debt of gratitude, and I pay tribute to the bravery and dedication of those men and women who give so much in their service today.

We must also ensure that veterans are treated with dignity and respect and remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

On Friday, June 29, I arrived in Ypres, Belgium, to take part in the Last Post ceremony, held every night at 8pm at the Menin Gate.

Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, the Menin Gate is in the Ypres Salient, where so many soldiers lost their lives.

I was pleased to be accompanied by my predecessor as Torfaen MP, now Lord Murphy, who laid a wreath to the fallen alongside me.

On Saturday, June 30, I visited Tyne Cot Cemetery.

There was a quite extraordinary emotional power in looking at the thousands of white graves in the gentle summer sunshine, each the same, yet each in memory of a different life lost, a different family’s grief. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission deserves our thanks for keeping these graves in immaculate condition.

I then went on to Acheux-en-Amiénois, a cemetery in the Somme where soldiers from Blaenavon, Pontypool and Cwmbran are buried.

There I laid small crosses on the graves of all those soldiers from Torfaen who fell.

Next I visited Mametz Wood to pay my respects where hundreds of soldiers from Wales fell taking the Wood in the most difficult of conditions.

I completed my tour on Sunday, July 1, by laying a wreath at the service commemorating the 102nd anniversary of the Battle of the Somme held at the Thiepval Memorial.

Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is an imposing monument on high ground that gives any visitor pause for thought.

Seeing the names of those who have died but have no known grave carved into the structure – tens of thousands of lives lost – is sobering and humbling.

As was quoted in the Order of Service: “In honouring their memory we renew our pledge to strive for a world where justice and mutual respect extend to all peoples and nations throughout the world.”