Today is Remembrance Day – also known as Armistice Day – which sees politicians, members of the Royal Family and war veterans honour the end of World War One.
This year’s service will feel a little more familiar than that of last year, which took place without the usual public crowds in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The purpose of the service is to commemorate members of the British and Commonwealth Armed Forces who fought in the war, as well as civilian casualties of conflict.
So how is Remembrance Day honoured and what are some quotes about Remembrance?
Remembrance Day quotes and poems
Remembrance Day marks the day World War One ended, at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, in 1918.
Remembrance Sunday is also marked each year, this falls on the second Sunday in November.
Different coloured poppies have been introduced to show respect to all different communities who served.
The Purple Poppy can be worn to remember animals who were killed during the wars or a black poppy can be worn to commemorate people of all nations of African, Black, West Indian and Pacific Islander heritage.
As well as choosing to wear a Poppy – whether it’s a white Poppy, purple or traditional red – you can take a moment to commemorate the fallen with a poem or a quote.
For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Extract from Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Tennyson
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder’d.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McRae was a Canadian doctor who served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the First World War.
He died on the battlefield in 1918.
Extract from MCMXIV by Phillip Larkin
Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word – the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages,
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again.
Extract from The Old Issue by Rudyard Kipling
A well-known quote often shared to commemorate the lives of fallen soldiers came from Kipling’s The Old Issue.
‘When you go home, tell them of us and say, for their tomorrow we gave our today.’
Will there be a Remembrance Sunday service?
This year, Remembrance Sunday will take place on Sunday, November 14, with a live service broadcast.
David Dimbleby will present live coverage of the Remembrance Sunday commemorations from Whitehall in London.
The service begins at 10:15am on November 14, with viewers able to watch on BBC One or iPlayer.
What time is the Remembrance Day silence?
A two-minute silence will be observed today, November 11, at 11am – the minute that World War One ended in 1918.
By the time the war was over, more than 18 million people had been killed worldwide.
MORE : When did we start wearing poppies and why?
MORE : Captain Sir Tom Moore’s family say he will honour Remembrance Day ‘in spirit’
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