Armistice Day: The UK remembers fallen soldiers with two minutes of silence
THE NATION fell silent today to honour the war dead on Armistice Day.
At the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month, offices, streets, schools and homes fell silent as an act of remembrance for all of Britain’s fallen soldiers.
Tributes were led by the last surviving First World War widow, Dorothy Ellis, who attended an event at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
She was joined by senior members of the government and the armed forces at the memorial in Alrewas, near Burton-on-Trent.
Mrs Ellis laid a wreath for her late husband Wilfred, who died in 1981 aged 82, and for his fellow soldiers from all conflicts of the last two centuries.
Wilfred Ellis almost died in the war as he was shot, gassed and left for dead in northern France.
His story was immortalised by Michael Morpurgo in the novel War Horse, which inspired an award-winning play and film.
Wilfred had sparked up a friendship with the author at a Devonshire pub.
Before the start of the service, Mrs Ellis said: "My husband felt very strongly about Armistice Day and it was a day that was set aside as a solemn remembrance day.
"I noticed, he was always usually a very jolly person but on Armistice Day he would just go very quiet and at first I couldn't understand it but then I got to realise why he was being so quiet and silent.
"He said to me 'you've got to remember this is the day that thousands of poor chaps died for us to keep us alive'.
"Although he'd been gassed and wounded, he still thought we owed it to them - he never bothered much about himself."
For Mrs Ellis, the day has particular significance as it falls on her birthday.
She added: "I've thought lots of times about it.
"My husband said 'You mustn't be miserable, dear', but it always seemed such a solemn occasion.
"I suppose it's because I was born on that day, it's extraordinary really."
The war memorial is constructed of Portland stone and is designed to allow a ray of sunlight shine onto a bronze wreath below.
The structure also bears the names of 16,000 military men and women who have died in the line of duty since 1948.
Services in London included one at the Lloyd's of London market in the City attended by the Chelsea pensioner war veterans.
Another service in the capital that took place in Trafalgar Square had musical performances Poppy Girls, James Blunt, former X Factor contestants Next of Kin, and Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts.
Actor Adrian Lester read an extract from Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, while actress Zoe Tapper read Jane Weir's memorial poem Poppies. Bugler Lance Sergeant Christopher Clarke, from the band of the Scots Guards, played the Last Post and Reveille to mark the start and end of the silence.
An estimated 4,000 people were in the square to observe the silence.
The Silence in the Square organised by the Royal British Legion brought workers out from nearby buildings to stand under an overcast and drizzling sky in memory of the fallen.
Traffic lights around the square turned red for four minutes while soldiers from the Nijmegen Company of the Grenadier Guards volunteered to hold up signs explaining the stop to drivers.
The service ended with attendees scattering poppy petals and crosses into the water of the Trafalgar Square fountains.