Thousands take part in events for Armed Forces Day

Thousands of people have joined in celebrations for Armed Forces Day across North Yorkshire.

In Scarborough, visitors were treated to a spectacular aerial display by an RAF Eurofighter Typhoon above the South Bay.

Ray Whitwell, a 105-year-old World War Two veteran, was the guest of honour at the event in the seaside town on Saturday.

Meanwhile, in Harrogate, a service was held to mark the lives of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF) - the volunteer arm of the RAF - who died while in service.

Details of the lives of some of those volunteers who were buried at the town's Stonefall Cemetery were issued by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as part of a project to celebrate the RAuxAF.

Speaking after the event, Wing Cdr Howard Leader said: "Today is an important commemorative event as part of our 100th anniversary year. This year we are marking 100 years of volunteer reserve service.

"Over that 100 years a lot of reservists have served all around the world in support of RAF operations."

He added: "Of course in the nature of the work that they do, a number of those people have lost their lives in active service.

"Today’s commemorative service is about remembering all of those fallen forebears of ours and remembering also, that wherever the RAF deploys today the RAuxAF goes with them, and occasionally still there are sadly casualties, and we will be thinking of those people too."

As part of Armed Forces Day, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke with veterans who had gathered near Catterick.

Sharing tea and cake with them at the Ellerton Lakeside Cafe, Mr Sunak, who is the Conservatives Party's parliamentary candidate for Richmond and Northallerton in the 4 July general election, joked he "needed a lot of sugar" to get through his day.

He was told about initiatives to tackle veterans' homelessness, mental health problems and issues facing service families at Catterick Garrison.

A full list of candidates standing for the Richmond and Northallerton constituency can be found here.

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