Origins
Plans for a Veterans' Day were announced in February 2006 by then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, who said the aim was to ensure the contribution of veterans was never forgotten. The day is marked across the UK by local ceremonies and the presentation of medals to living ex-servicemen and women. The date of 27 June was chosen as it came the day after the anniversary of the first investiture of the Victoria Cross, in Hyde Park, London in 1857.
Veterans' Day was created as a permanent extension of Veterans' Awareness Week first held in 2005. In the UK it followed the model of the Veterans Day holiday in the United States which honours all military veterans and is both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states.
On 25 June 2007, Jim Devine the Member of Parliament for Livingston, tabled a House of Commons Early Day Motion calling for the day to be a public holiday, stating "that this House recognises the outstanding contribution that veterans have made to the country; and believes that Veterans' Day should be a national public holiday across the United Kingdom."
Read more about this topic: Armed Forces Day (United Kingdom)
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