Remembrance Sunday

Eleven,eleven, eleven. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the moment when the Armistice was signed, drawing to a close the hostilities on the Western Front and the end of world war one in 1918.

Across the world on Remembrance day, wreath-laying ceremonies mark the exact moment with a two minute silence being observed at 11 a.m. in memory of all those who gave their lives for their country, not just in world war one but in all the  other wars and conflicts since. 

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

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.

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.