The Tower of London glowed on Sunday evening after thousands of torches were lit in its dry moat to mark the centenary of the end of the first world war.
A ceremonial Beefeater began the ceremony by bringing a flame down from the tower to the moat, which had been filled with smoke. Representatives of the armed forces and volunteers then used the flame to ignite around 10,000 torches scattered at the foot of the tower’s walls.
Midshipman Balraj Dhanda of the Royal Navy was among the volunteers. “I think it creates the right atmosphere for people to have their own personal reflections, and gives people time with their own thoughts,” he said.
Spectators gathered to watch the spectacle, which was accompanied by a specially commissioned sound installation featuring choral music and words from Mary Borden’s Sonnets To A Soldier. A minute’s silence was also observed.
Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images
“What is so special about it is that it means many different things,” said Dick Harrold, governor of the Tower of London. “The message with the sound is not focused so much on those that were lost, but those that were left behind – the bereaved and others who were affected by war.”
Historic Royal Palaces, which manages the tower, was keen to mark the centenary of the Armistice after the success of the 2014 display of red ceramic poppies pouring out of a window and filling the moat.
The four-month installation at the tower commemorated 100 years since the start of the first world war, and two sculptures from the artwork have been touring Britain since. Together the pieces have been seen by more than 9 million people, and the two smaller sculptures are currently on display for the final time at the Imperial War Museums in Manchester and London.
The Tower of London’s torch ceremony, called Beyond the Deepening Shadow, will be repeated every night until Remembrance Sunday on 11 November.
