Remembrance Sunday
In the
United Kingdom Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday nearest to 11 November -
Remembrance Day, which is the anniversary of when hostilities in the
First World War ended at 11 a.m in 1918.
Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and women , youth organisations , and military cadet forces. Wreaths of
poppies are laid on the memorials and a two-minutes silence is held at 11am.
The national ceremony is held at the
Cenotaph on Whitehall, London and since 2005 the women's memorial is also included.
Encyclopedia
In the
United Kingdom Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday nearest to 11 November -
Remembrance Day, which is the anniversary of when hostilities in the
First World War ended at 11 a.m in 1918.
Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and women , youth organisations , and military cadet forces. Wreaths of
poppies are laid on the memorials and a two-minutes silence is held at 11am.
The national ceremony is held at the
Cenotaph on Whitehall, London and since 2005 the women's memorial is also included. The Ceremony is televised each year by the BBC from
Whitehall,
London, when wreaths are laid by the
Queen, the
Duke of Edinburgh, the
Prince of Wales,
Duke of York, the
Princess Royal and the
Duke of Kent; the
Prime Minister, leaders of major political parties, the Foreign Secretary, the Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Army, Navy and the Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets and the Civilian Services. A two minutes silence is held at 11am. This silence is marked by the firing of a field gun on Horse Guards Parade to begin and end the silence, followed by Royal Marines buglers, playing the
Last Post.
Other members of the
British Royal Family watch from the balcony of the Foreign Office.
After the Ceremony, a parade of veterans, organised by the Royal British Legion marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes.
From 1919 until 1945, Remembrance ceremonies was held on
Armistice Day; observance was then moved to Remembrance Sunday but since the 50th anniversary of the end of the
Second World War in 1995 it has become usual to hold ceremonies on both Armistice Day
and Remembrance Sunday.
On Remembrance Sunday in 1987, a
bomb exploded by the
Provisional IRA killed 11 people and injured 63 in
Enniskillen .
In 2006,
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown proposed that in addition to Remembrance Sunday, a new national day to celebrate the achievements of veterans should be instituted. The "Veterans Day", to be held in the summer, would be similar to Veterans Day celebrations in the United States.
See also
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