I T WAS one of the last gasps of Empire - the British attempt to hold on, a little longer, to the British Crown colony of Aden in the face of growing pan-Arab nationalism.

Between 1963 and 1967 more than 220 Britons were killed and 650 wounded in the British-controlled territories of South Arabia - what is now Yemen.

The insurgency, by Arab groups including the Egyptian-supported National Liberation Front (NLF), resulted in Britain pulling out of the territory earlier than it had intended (and without having been able to drawn up an agreement on future governance) at the end of November 1967: 50 years ago exactly. The People’s Republic of South Yemen was proclaimed in its place.

The tide of history was against Aden. But the soldiers who served in what became, in many ways, a forgotten conflict, were not to know that at the time.

They were simply doing their jobs, serving Queen and country in the best way they knew how.

Many of them saw terrible things. Veteran Stuart Bowyer, who served in Aden with the Royal Corps of Transport in 1966 and 1967, described how he lost ‘eight friends in ten minutes’.

The start of the conflict was recently recreated - perhaps not entirely accurately - in the BBC drama The Last Post. But yesterday, it was commemorated in a far more authentic and meaningful way.

Hundreds of veterans braved freezing temperatures to take part in a parade through York followed by a service at the Minster. It was a genuinely moving occasion - and the perfect way to remember those who lost their lives in this ‘forgotten’ conflict 50 years ago.