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It was an enormous privilege to have been Constable of the Tower of London in 2014 when the Tower hosted the World War 1 poppies installation – “Blood swept Lands and Seas of Red”. By general agreement that installation of 888,246 ceramic poppies became the iconic image at the start of the Nation’s commemoration of that tragic war. At first glance the poppies looked like the massed armies in which the soldiers fought and died, but that specific number of poppies represented the 888,246 individual British and Colonial soldiers who died in the First World War. Each individual poppy represented a life lost and a family shattered. The history of that war has been documented in countless books and films, but the actions of many of those individual soldiers can be found in their letters, their poems and in the citations for gallantry written about many of them. While most of those decorated were for actions of great courage, many others were decorated for their selfless commitment in trying to save the lives of others. Captain Noel Chevasse, a medical officer with the 10th Battalion Kings Regiment, the Liverpool Scottish, and the only soldier in the First World War to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice was fatally wounded on 2nd August 1917 trying to save the lives of some of his comrades, dying of his wounds two days later. On the headstone of his grave in Belgium are words from St John’s Gospel: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. The selfless commitment of Noel Chevasse is immortalised by his two Victoria Crosses and a Military Cross – the Cross being the symbol of commitment and sacrifice. A hundred years ago, the soldiers marched to war with little equipment - a rifle, a helmet and for many a small Bible in their tunic pocket. Today, our society has changed in so many ways and the Bible – the heart of the Christian faith – is not to hand in the way that it was. But Selfless Commitment remains the first of the modern British Army’s core values; another of the six is Respect for Others. These echo the challenge that Jesus made two thousand years ago: “The first commandment is this: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart… and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself.” Noel Chevasse understood that, amidst the mud of Passchendaele. If like him we rise to that challenge, then we can be confident of the promise of God in the book of Revelation: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”