Air cadet carries the National standard for War Widows

Fourteen-year-old Gemma Porter was one of well over a hundred Air Cadets to attend the Bedworth Armistice Day parade on the 11th November. But for Gemma, this was no ordinary parade. She had been selected to carry the National Standard of the War Widows Association of Great Britain.

Lucie Wilkinson of the War Widows Association had requested that Cadet Gemma Porter of 121(Nuneaton) Squadron Air Training Corps carry the Associations National Standard during the parade and as such Gemma found herself representing the women of Britain who are all too often forgotten as victims of war.

At fourteen, Gemma is just one year younger than Lucie Wilkinson was, when she joined the Word War II Belgian resistance movement. Lucie became part of an elaborate network which was responsible for helping ten British airmen to evade capture and make their way across occupied Europe and back to Britain.

After the parade Lucie Wilkinson and the other members of the War Widows Association contingent thanked Gemma for the excellent way in which she had represented Britain's War Widows by carrying the Associations National Standard.

The War Widows Association is essentially a group that exists to improve the conditions of War Widows and their dependants. It helps women who have suffered bereavement as a result of World War II and all conflicts since then including Iraq and more recently Afghanistan. The Association also represents those who have suffered the loss of their husband in peacetime.