Rayleigh & Wickford MP, Mark Francois, who also serves as the Shadow Armed Forces Minister, was part of a recent visit to Portsdown House, Portsmouth, with the Armed Forces Bill Select Committee. As well as examining service housing and the operation of the courts martial system, the Committee members also took the opportunity to visit the famous D-Day command room, which was featured in the film, “The Longest Day.”
Portsdown House, on the South coast, served as the forward “war room”, from which D-Day, the largest ever amphibious invasion in history, was organised, to begin the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe, in June 1944.
Speaking about the visit, Mark said:
“This visit to Portsdown House was poignant for me, as my late father, Stoker 1st Class Reginald Francois, was serving on a minesweeper, named HMS Bressay, as part of the allied minesweeping flotilla, on that fateful day. It was therefore quite emotional for me to visit the same room from which that whole operation, including my dad’s small but important part in it, was commanded. Lest We Forget.”
