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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National

Remembrance Day 2018: Poignant images show commemorations around the UK over the last 100 years

Poignant archive images have shown how Britain has marked Remembrance Day over the last 100 years.

The first two minute silence was held in the UK one year after the end of the First World War in 1918.

On November 11, 1919, King George asked members of the public to observe a silence at 11am, so “the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead”.

The silence has since been observed each year at the end of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

First World War images colourised for Armistice centenary

And Britons have taken part in Remembrance events throughout the UK to honour those who lost their lives in the war.

In 1920, a permanent Cenotaph was unveiled in Whitehall, which became the focus for remembrance events in London.

November 11, 1928: The 10-year anniversary of the day that fighting ended in World War I at the Cenotaph (Getty Images)

Large crowds would gather around the war memorial and observe the two minute silence.

Princess Elizabeth lays a wreath on the Cenotaph in 1947 (Getty Images)

It took the place of a temporary structure that was erected for a peace parade following the end of WWI.

One archive image from 1928 shows people marking the tenth anniversary of the armistice at the memorial.

Another, from 1947 shows the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, laying a wreath at the memorial.

Following the end of WII, the poppy was adopted as a symbol of remembrance.

From 1921, poppies were sold to support the Earl Haig for ex-servicemen. The poppies at that time were made by former soldiers and helped keep them working.

November 10, 1980: From left to right, Liberal Party leader David Steel, former Labour leader James Callaghan and Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher during a Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph (Getty Images)

Now the poppy appeal is the Royal British Legion’s biggest fundraising campaign held every year in November, the period of Remembrance.

The images show poppies used in remembrance events throughout the last century, with the flowers featured in wreaths laid by politicians at the annual Remembrance Sunday Service at the Cenotaph.

Crowds of visitors view the 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' installation in the moat of the Tower of London on November 9, 2014 (Getty Images)

In 2014, crowds of visitors were pictured around the "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" installation in the moat of the Tower of London.

After the Second World War, both wars were remembered during church services held on the closest Sunday to November 11.

The two minute silence was observed on the closest Sunday to November 11, now known as Remembrance Sunday.

However in 1995, following a campaign by the British Legion, the two minute silence was reintroduced on November 11 in addition to Remembrance Sunday.

A boy plants a wooden cross bearing a poppy in a memorial field at Saltwell Park in Gateshead, 2012 (AFP/Getty Images)
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