1646 – Issue 3

FEATURE STORY Clockwise from right: Lutyens’ wood & plaster Cenotaph, 1919; Blue Coat cadet Harry Hayes, age 13, plants the last poppy at The Tower of London 2014; The Unknown Warrior lies in state in Westminster Abbey, November 1920 by Dr Michael Fopp (1964) MA, FMA, FRAeS; Museum Director, Aviator, Historian and President of the Richard Aldworth Society. Each year we pause and contemplate those who have lost their lives in the service of their country. It was not always so. The tradition of remembrance evolved out of Armistice Day. The armistice (ceasefire) between the Central Powers and the Allies was signed at 05:45 on the 11 November 1918 and came into force at 11am that morning. To celebrate this moment in history King George V hosted a banquet for the President of France during the evening of 10 November 1919 at Buckingham Palace. The first official Armistice Day commemoration was held the next morning on the palace grounds. Overthesubsequentyearsthecelebrationhasmoved on and become first an act of commemoration and, in the latter years a day of remembrance. Officials, politicians and Royalty did not at first recognise the need of the ordinary man and woman in the street to have what we would now term ‘closure’ to the horrendous events of the Great War of 1914 -18. It is estimated that between 15 and 20 million men died during and up to 23 million were wounded. The, then, British Empire lost over a million dead and they disappeared or were buried on the battlefields where they fell. Their families and friends We shall remember them 14