September 15 will be a day of celebration for the people gathered for the marriage of two friends. It is his second and her third, so by now they should know how to throw a party, and I’m sure it will be a day we remember.

Some 67 years ago, in 1940, September 15 became a day of celebration for millions. This day is now commemorated – albeit decreasingly so as that generation dies out – as Battle of Britain Day. The largest concentration of enemy aircraft ever seen came across the English coast that day, but was defeated by the Royal Air Force’s Fighter Command, whose airmen had been so famously praised by prime minister Winston Churchill a few weeks previously: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”