NO parent should outlive their child. Only those who do can adequately describe the numbing pain of their death.

So it is impossible to imagine how the family of the six Hirons boys who marched off to fight in the First World War coped with the loss of four of them.

Far from being unusual, it was fairly common for families to lose two or more of their children in the ‘War to End All Wars’.

Of course, we are still losing our sons and daughters on a foreign field today, but the sheer scale of the slaughter in World War One means that few families were left untouched by tragedy and grief.

That is why it is right that we take the time and make the effort to commemorate the start of the war this year.

We will be doing our bit as the country remembers and if you have a family story to tell, we’d be happy to hear from you.

A century may have passed, but we must never forget.