The MDP deployments involved close co-operation with the various Home Office Police Forces that had requested support, and with the 1,000 military personnel who were mobilised at the same time.

In the first 24 hours following the activation of Operation Temperer, MDP officers were deployed to support 8 police forces across England and Wales. This number increased to 18 over the Bank Holiday weekend, with up to a quarter of the force’s total strength of Authorised Firearms Officers deployed to provide reassurance to the public at a variety of iconic sites, crowded places and public and major sporting events around the country.

The MDP also provided armed officers to support British Transport Police with keeping the rail network safe, including at London transport hubs, and MDP officers were also deployed at Stansted Airport to support Essex Police.

The busiest day for the MDP was Saturday 27 May, when the force supported policing operations at 60 public events across England and Wales, including high profile music concerts, festivals and sporting occasions.

These included:

• Chester Races
• Radio One Big Weekend in Hull
• Tall Ships Festival at Gloucester Docks
• Iron Maiden concert at London’s O2 venue.

The police forces who received support from the MDP ranged from the Metropolitan Police Service in London to Dyfed-Powys in Wales, and from West Mercia to South Yorkshire, a response described by MDP Gold Commander Assistant Chief Constable Paul McLaughlin as ‘extraordinary’. He said:

We responded exceptionally well. The professional manner and attitude of our officers and staff was first class. We provided very large numbers of officers in response to what was requested, and the transition at local level in terms of military personnel back-filling for the MDP also went very smoothly.

Advance planning was key to the success of the MDP deployments, together with solid liaison with the National Police Co-ordination Centre and the Operations Directorate, he added.

And MDP Deputy Chief Constable Andy Adams commented:

The MOD response to Operation Temperer has been impressive and I know that the wider department will be expressing their own support for what their colleagues have been doing. I would like to take the opportunity to recognise the important role MDP officers and staff undertake through our dual focus at times like this: our role within the MOD and that of delivering a policing service which can be called upon outside of the department.

Critical incidents always generate the ‘can do’ attitude in those who are operationally focused; people put themselves out, are prepared to endure long hours and simply want to get on with the job. For these people, public service overrides personal interests and other commitments.

I saw many examples of that throughout this operation. There has been an enthusiastic approach to ‘getting the job done’ and I, for one, am extremely grateful for the commitment of everyone involved.

The Cabinet is as follows:

• Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service – Rt Hon Theresa May MP
• First Secretary of State, and Minister for the Cabinet Office – Rt Hon Damian Green MP
• Chancellor of the Exchequer – Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP
• Secretary of State for the Home Department – Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP
• Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs – Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP
• Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union – Rt Hon David Davis MP
• Secretary of State for Defence – Rt Hon Sir Michael Fallon KCB MP
• Secretary of State for Health – Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
• Lord Chancellor; and Secretary of State for Justice*– Rt Hon David Lidington CBE MP
• Secretary of State for Education, and Minister for Women and Equalities – Rt Hon Justine Greening MP
• Secretary of State for International Trade, and President of the Board of Trade – Rt Hon Liam Fox MP
• Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – Rt Hon Greg Clark MP
• Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
• Secretary of State for Transport – Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP
• Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government – Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
• Lord Privy Seal, and Leader of the House of Lords – Rt Hon Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
• Secretary of State for Scotland – Rt Hon David Mundell MP
• Secretary of State for Wales – Rt Hon Alun Cairns MP
• Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP
• Secretary of State for International Development – Rt Hon Priti Patel MP
• Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport – Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP
• Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – Rt Hon David Gauke MP
• Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster* – Rt Hon Sir Patrick McLoughlin MP

The following also attend Cabinet:

• Chief Secretary to the Treasury – Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP
• Lord President of the Council, and Leader of the House of Commons – Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP
• Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip) – Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP
• Attorney General – Rt Hon Jeremy Wright QC MP
• Minister of State (for Immigration), Home Office – Rt Hon Brandon Lewis MP

Further appointments will be added to this list as they are announced.

*unpaid

Prince Harry joined the 2017 UK team of Wounded, Injured and Sick (WIS) Service personnel and veterans for their first official team photograph at the Tower of London today. Following the unveiling, Prince Harry, who is patron of the Invictus Games Foundation, joined competitors at a reception in Plaisterers Hall.

The Invictus Games harness the power of sport to inspire recovery and generate wider understanding and respect for those who serve their country. Getting involved in sport provides significant physical and mental health benefits including increasing self-confidence and psychological empowerment.

More than 300 WIS personnel and veterans applied for one of 90 places available on the team. Selection criteria included the benefit the Invictus Games will give an individual as part of their recovery, combined with performance and commitment to training. 62% of the team are new to the Invictus Games with only 8% having competed in the two previous games, London 2014 and Orlando 2016.

The UK team will join 16 other nations at the third Invictus Games from 23-30 September in Toronto, Canada. They will compete across 12 sports: athletics, archery, wheelchair basketball, road cycling, powerlifting, indoor rowing, wheelchair rugby, swimming, sitting volleyball, wheelchair tennis, the Jaguar Land Rover Driving Challenge, and a new sport for 2017, golf.

The 2017 UK team captain has been named as former Army Major Bernie Broad. He served in the Grenadier Guards for around 30 years and due to injuries sustained in an explosion in Afghanistan 2009 lost both his legs below the knee.

He said:

The Invictus Games are empowering and inspire all of us as competitors to be the best version of ourselves. It allows us to be judged on what we can achieve, rather than what we can’t.

To simply be selected for the UK Team was an amazing achievement. To then be further selected as the UK Team Captain filled me with such immense pride and it is a huge privilege to be given this honour.

Between now and the Games, training will take place across the country at recovery centres and other external venues to train and develop the team.

The UK delegation to the Invictus Games Toronto 2017 is being delivered by a partnership comprising The Ministry of Defence (MOD), Help for Heroes, and The Royal British Legion.

The full team list can be found on the Help for Heroes website.

Today (29 May) is the annual International Day of UN Peacekeepers, which was marked by a number of events in London on Wednesday.

The day also commemorates those who have lost their lives while serving on Peacekeeping operations. Over 100 UK service personnel make up part of more than 3,500 personnel from around the world who have died serving as UN Peacekeepers since 1948, and they were remembered during a ceremony and wreath-laying at the Cenotaph.

Commander of Joint Forces Command General Sir Chris Deverell and Foreign Office Minister for Asia and Pacific Alok Sharma laid wreaths during the event, and wreaths were also laid by representatives from nearly 100 Embassies and High Commissions, the Chief Inspector of the Constabulary, UN Veterans Association, widows and schoolchildren.

The Band of the Welsh Guards performed at the wreath-laying, and Wednesday’s events also included a Conference at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), opened by Vice Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Gordon Messenger.

Over 690 UK military personnel are currently deployed in support of multiple UN Peacekeeping missions, the majority in South Sudan, Cyprus and Somalia. The largest of these deployments, with nearly 400 British troops now deployed, is in South Sudan to support the UN’s mission in country.

Commander of Joint Forces Command General Sir Chris Deverell said:

Today, on the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, we pay tribute to the 3,500 personnel from over 120 countries who have died while serving the United Nations. When peacekeepers deploy they do so on behalf of the international community and in support of efforts by previously warring parties to find a path to peace. I am grateful to each person who deploys, and very proud that over 690 members of the UK Armed Forces are currently deployed as part of this effort.

The UK contribution to the UN Mission in South Sudan includes engineering tasks and the construction and running of a temporary field hospital, to be followed by a permanent facility which will provide medical care for over 1,800 UN Peacekeepers and UN staff.

Private Henry Parker, 5th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, has finally been laid to rest after he was killed in action during the Battle of the Somme on 26 September 1916, just 3 days short of his 23rd birthday. The burial, with full military honours, took place on Wednesday 17 May 2017 at the Warlencourt British Cemetery, near Arras, France.

The service, organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), part of Defence Business Services, was conducted by The Reverend Jonathan Wylie CF, Chaplain to the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment.

Beverley Simon, JCCC said:

It has been an honour for the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre to organise today’s ceremony and to ensure this brave soldier has been buried with the dignity and respect he deserves. It has been a privilege to have met Private Parker’s family and to personally involve them with the planning of his burial.

The greater part of Private Parker’s service was holding the frontline with his Battalion in the Ypres Salient area. It was not until August 1916 that his Battalion was redeployed from Flanders, along with the other units of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, to the Somme. Private Parker was killed during an incremental advance towards the ‘Flers’ enemy trench from the ‘Starfish’ line on 26 September 1916. Henry’s body was never recovered from the battlefield until remains were found in a farmer’s field almost a century later.

Henry’s brothers James and Thomas Parker, who had both seen active service during the Great War, returned home safely.

Pat Burton, great-niece of Henry Parker said:

It is a great honour for us to be here today to pay our respects to a Great Uncle, Private Henry Parker. We are also here to represent Hazel Ranaldi, nee Croft, the daughter of Rosina Parker who was Henry’s sister.

We would like to thank the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre of the Ministry of Defence for inviting us to the burial ceremony here in Warlencourt, and feel very humble to be part of this occasion and extremely proud of our Great Uncle.

Margaret Parker, niece of Private Parker, who was unfortunately unable to accompany the other 20 family members to the ceremony, said:

Since the news that Uncle Henry has been found, I have had the honour and privilege to not only catch up with relatives I did know but also to meet others for the first time when I went to Richmond. We have been brought together through the brave actions of Uncle Henry, who, 100 years ago, gave his life for us and all that we hold dear.

I would like to thank all who have been involved, having given time and unstinting efforts to reunite Uncle Henry with us, his family, and bring us some closure. My thoughts are with you today, when I will be in Wansford Church thinking about Uncle Henry, our family and all those who have guided and supported us on this journey. God bless you all.

In 2014, the remains of Private Parker were discovered in a farmer’s field situated on the outskirts of Matinpuich, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. The military insignia recovered with the remains was key to the eventual identification of this soldier.

Steve Erskine, the Assistant Curator at The Green Howards Museum, responsible for extensive historical research in determining Henry’s identity, along with volunteer Mike Crisp, said:

We are incredibly proud to have played our part in helping identify this member of the regimental family after so many years. What’s followed has been a fascinating journey into local and family history research, capturing the interest of a range of people along the way who all want to understand more about the world in which Henry lived and the circumstances in which he died. It has been an honour to meet them all and work together to give Henry the resting place he deserves.

Having received formal notification of remains being found, the JCCC undertook genealogy and historical research with The Green Howards Museum in an attempt to discover a potential identity. A shortlist of 12 possible names was identified and JCCC was able to trace surviving relatives of all 12 families and arrange DNA testing. In February 2017, the news came through that Francis Storry, a great-nephew of Private Parker, had been confirmed as a surviving relative and the identification of Henry Parker was confirmed.

Soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment provided the bearer party and fired a salute at the service.

Francis Storry, great-nephew of Henry Parker said:

When we got the letter from the MOD Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre, we were very surprised as we didn’t know anything about Henry Parker. It’s a great honour to be here today with 20 family members to pay our respects.

Lt Col David O’Kelly, Regimental Secretary of The Yorkshire Regiment said:

The Yorkshire Regiment is immensely proud to be able to lay to rest one of its brave soldiers, even 100 years on from the war in which he was tragically killed. He was an inspiration to his comrades then, and is still an inspiration to those who serve in the Regiment now. We will remember him.

A new headstone bearing Private Parker’s name has been provided by the CWGC, who will now care for his final resting place in perpetuity.

Peter Francis, CWGC said:

Today’s service is a poignant reminder of the human cost of the Great War. Henry has been given the honoured burial he so richly deserves and it is a privilege that we can care for his grave, and those of his comrades, at this cemetery and thousands of others across the world in perpetuity. In doing so, we will ensure they are never forgotten.