THERE are few communities in Swindon that can feel untouched by the Centenary of the start of the Great War that we marked this week. Many of us extinguished all, but a single light on Monday as a gesture of remembrance.

As part of the wider programme to inform us all about the conflict, we have a new exhibition at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery in Old Town that I was able to visit yesterday. I was impressed by the sheer range of items on display, including an original map from the Western Front, along with items from Germany as well as from the UK.

I would encourage everyone to go to see this exhibition as this, along with our local media, will play a leading role in reminding us all of the personal stories and images of those who served, and fell, in the War.

The museum is open from 10am to 3pm from Wednesday to Saturday. Dr Mike Pringle and Mark Sutton are to be commended for all their hard work in putting the exhibition together.

Swindon’s residents and factories played an important role, and there will be more occasions when I can talk about this over the coming months. However, since the Commonwealth Games ended only last weekend, it is worth thinking about the role all these countries played, too.

Some of us will be familiar with the ANZACS – the troops from Australia and New Zealand who fought so gallantly in the abortive Gallipoli campaign as well as on the Western front and in Palestine. Many will also know that the Gurkhas were deployed on the Western front for a time.

Other soldiers in the British Indian Army saw active service in the Middle East where Basra and Kut were key battlegrounds then, just as they have been more recently.

The conflict extended into Africa, with the German East African forces surrendering in Zambia in 1918, in the town known today as Mbala, then called Abercorn.

Prior to that, there was scattered fighting in what is now Tanzania, parts of Kenya, Uganda, and Mozambique.

We know that this was meant to be the war to end wars. It is to humanity’s shame that it was not.

Nevertheless, Swindon today is an example that an opponent is not always an enemy. We all benefit from European investment as one of our major factories belongs to the BMW Group, just as we do from the wide range of cultural experiences that that peace and tolerance bring us now.