A POIGNANT CEREMONY REMEMBERING THE FALLEN

At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month – we will remember them. However, in 2020 the pandemic forced the Royal Family to commemorate Remembrance Day in a very different fashion…

Remembrance Day, as people in the UK know it, was first observed in 1919 throughout the British Commonwealth. It was originally called “Armistice Day” to commemorate the armistice agreement that ended the First World War on Monday, November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m.—on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Armistice is Latin for to stand (still) arms.

From 1921 to 1930, Armistice Day was held on the Monday of the week in which November 11 fell. In 1931, Alan Neill, Member of Parliament for Comox– Alberni, introduced a bill to observe Armistice Day only on November 11. Passed by the House of Commons, the bill also changed the name to “Remembrance Day”. The first Remembrance Day was observed on November 11, 1931.

To this day we mark Remembrance Day around the United Kingdom with a Two Minute Silence at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month.

The National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London is held on Remembrance Sunday, the closest Sunday to 11 November. The service is attended by senior members of the Royal Family, including Her Majesty the Queen, HM Government and usually features a March Past involving 10,000 veterans.

TWO-MINUTE SILENCE