REMEMBRANCE DAY At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare during WWI. The day, which signifies the official cessation of hostilities was originally known as Armistice Day. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war. This first modern world conflict had seen the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between 9 and 13 million dead. Some figures indicate that as many as one-third of them have no known grave. On the first anniversary of the armistice in 1919 two minutes silence was instituted as part of the main commemorative ceremony at the new Cenotaph in London. The silence was proposed by Australian journalist Edward Honey, who was working in Fleet Street in London. After the end of the Second World War, the Australian and British governments changed the name to Remembrance Day. In Australia on the 75th anniversary of the armistice in 1993 Remembrance Day ceremonies surrounded the return of the remains of an unknown Australian soldier, exhumed from Adelaide Cemetery at Villers-Bretonneux in France. The soldier was ceremonially entombed in the Australian War Memorials Hall of Memory. In the lead up to Remembrance Day 2014, pause to remember our Commonwealth War Dead and buy a poppy in support of various commemorative groups.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 22:01:50 +0000
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