MP Michael Gove visits CWGC graves on the Faroe Islands

Conservative MP Michael Gove visited a CWGC plot on the Faroe Islands last week.

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who was joined by British Ambassador to Denmark Dominic Schroeder, was greeted at Tórshavn Cemetery, Faroe Islands, by CWGC Honorary Supervisor for the Faroe Islands Tummas Dam.

He laid a wreath at one of the graves and was briefed on the CWGC plot at the cemetery.

Torshavn Cemetery contains 38 Commonwealth burials, one of them unidentified.

A small force of Commonwealth troops was sent to the Faroes in April 1940, to guard against a possible German invasion following their occupation of Denmark. Although no invasion was attempted, the islands suffered a number of raids from the Luftwaffe in 1941 and 1942. The garrison, which at its peak numbered 6,000, was greatly reduced in April 1944.

The MP visited the cemetery as part of a trip to the Faroe Islands, during which he met Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands Aksel Johannesen to discuss UK and Faroes relations and fisheries.