Remembrance Sunday

The poppy is worn around the time of Remembrance Sunday.

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November Armistice Day,^[1] the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m. in 1918. Remembrance Sunday is held "to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts".^[2]

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most cities, towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women (principally members of the Royal British Legion), members of local armed forces regular and reserve units (Royal Navy and Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Marines and Royal Marines Reserve, Army and Territorial Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Auxiliary Air Force), military cadet forces (Sea Cadet Corps, Army Cadet Force and Air Training Corps as well as the Combined Cadet Force) and youth organisations (e.g. Scouts, Boys' Brigade, Girls' Brigade and Guides). Wreaths of remembrance poppies are laid on the memorials and two minutes silence is held at 11 a.m. Church bells are usually rung "half-muffled", creating a sombre effect.

National ceremony in the United Kingdom [edit]

The United Kingdom national ceremony is held in London at the Cenotaph on Whitehall and, since 2002, also at the Women's Memorial. Wreaths are laid by Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry of Wales, the Prime Minister, leaders of major political parties and former Prime Ministers, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and fishing fleets and the civilian services. Two minutes' silence is held at 11 a.m., before the laying of the wreaths. The silence represents the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, when the guns of Europe fell silent.^[3] 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 sounding Last Post.

The event consists mainly of an extensive march past, with army bands playing live music, each year following the list of the Traditional Music of Remembrance (see below).

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.

Regional and local ceremonies in the United Kingdom [edit]

Significant ceremonies also take place in the capitals of the nations and across the regions of the United Kingdom.^[4] Most notably at the Scottish National War Memorial, in Edinburgh in the grounds of Edinburgh Castle,^[5] the Welsh National War Memorial in Cardiff^[6] and at the Northern Ireland War Memorial and Cenotaph in Belfast in the grounds of the Belfast City Hall.^[7]

Television coverage [edit]

The ceremony has been televised each year by the BBC since 1946. It is the joint-longest running live televised annual event in the world, the record being shared with the Chelsea Flower Show. When first shown in 1937, it was the second ever live outside event to be broadcast, the first being the Coronation procession of George VI earlier that year.

The 1947 telerecording of the ceremony is the oldest surviving record of a broadcast of a live outside event.

Remembrance Week is a week-long series^[8] of special programmes commemorating the ceremony, transmitted on BBC One Daytime. It is made by production company Fever Media and is presented by Gethin Jones. It was first transmitted in 2010^[9] and returned in November 2011 for a second series.^[10]

British Overseas Territories [edit]

In the past, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs laid a wreath on behalf of all the British overseas territories. However, since 2001 there has been a campaign by the United Kingdom's Overseas Territories Association for the right to lay a wreath themselves at the annual service at the Cenotaph. In 2008 the Labour Government agreed that one wreath could be laid for all 14 territories by a representative of the territories.^[11][12]

Northern Ireland [edit]

In Northern Ireland, Remembrance Sunday has tended to be associated with the unionist community. Most Irish nationalists and republicans do not take part in the public commemoration of British soldiers. This is mainly due to the actions of the British Army during The Troubles.^[13][14][15] However, some moderate nationalists have attended Remembrance Day events as a way to connect with the unionist community. In 1987 a bomb was detonated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) just before a Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Enniskillen, killing eleven people. The IRA said it had made a mistake and had been targeting soldiers parading to the war memorial.

Other ceremonies [edit]

From 1919 until 1945, Armistice Day observance was always on 11 November itself. It 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.

In 2006, then 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. This has now been renamed "Armed Forces Day", to include currently serving troops to Service families, and from veterans to cadets. The first "Armed Forces Day" was held on 27 June 2009.

Submariners hold an additional remembrance walk and ceremony on the Sunday before Remembrance Sunday, which has The Submariners Memorial as its focal point.

Traditional music [edit]

Each year, the programme of music at the National Ceremony remains the same, following a programme finalised in 1930:^[16]

• Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne
• Heart of Oak by William Boyce
• The Minstrel Boy by Thomas Moore
• Men of Harlech
• The Skye Boat Song
• Isle of Beauty by Thomas Haynes Bayly
• David of the White Rock
• Oft in the Stilly Night by John Stevenson
• Flowers of the Forest
• Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar
• Dido's lament by Henry Purcell
• O Valiant Hearts by Charles Harris
• Solemn Melody by Walford Davies
• Last Post – a bugle call
• Beethoven's Funeral March No. 1, by Johann Heinrich Walch
• O God, Our Help in Ages Past – words by Isaac Watts, music by William Croft
• Reveille – a bugle call
• God Save The Queen

Other pieces of music are then played during the unofficial wreath laying and the march past of the veterans, starting with Trumpet Voluntary and followed by It's A Long Way To Tipperary, the marching song of the Connaught Rangers, a famous British Army Irish Regiment of long ago.

Outside the United Kingdom [edit]

Outside the United Kingdom, Anglican and Church of Scotland churches often have a commemorative service on Remembrance Sunday. In the Republic of Ireland there is an ecumenical service in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, the Church of Ireland's "National Cathedral". Since 1993, the President of Ireland has attended this service.^[17] The state has its own National Day of Commemoration (held in July) for all Irish men and women who have died in war. In the United States, it is celebrated by many Anglo-Catholic churches in the Episcopal Church.

In New Zealand, an attempt was made to change Armistice Day to Remembrance Sunday after World War II but this was a failure, partly due to competition from Anzac Day.^[18]

See also [edit]

• Remembrance Day
• Moment of silence

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Royal British Legion
• The British War Memorial Project
• The Department for Culture, Media and Sport - UK National Service of Remembrance