Video: Solemn hush as Yorkshire pays Armistice Day tribute

Acts of remembrance have taken place across the country, including a service at the national Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire.

The last surviving First World War widow, Dorothy Ellis, was among the guests at the outdoor event.

The memorial bears the names of more than 16,000 fallen service personnel.

The event took place within the walls of the Armed Forces Memorial, which is designed to allow a shaft of sunlight to dissect its walls hitting the bronze wreath sculpture when the two minutes silence takes place.

Services held in the capital included one at the Lloyd’s of London market in the City attended by the Chelsea Pensioners, and another in Trafalgar Square, featuring musical performances and readings.

The Archbishop of Canterbury visited the Ministry of Defence and The Cenotaph in Whitehall to mark the solemn occasion, where he also met service chaplains and was updated on military operations.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said: At this time of year it’s essential that we remember and give thanks for all those who gave their lives for the sake of freedom in the two World Wars, and also remember those who still risk their lives as servicemen and women in our Armed Forces.

“It’s a time to recommit ourselves to the cause of peace and to seek to play our own small part as agents of reconciliation.”

In Belgium, the Duke of Edinburgh attended a “sacred soil” ceremony alongside soldiers of the Household Division, Belgian soldiers, and schoolchildren from both the United Kingdom and Belgium.

The soil, gathered from some 70 First World War battlefields and Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries, will be brought back to the UK to form the centrepiece of a Flanders Field memorial garden at Wellington Barracks. It will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the commencement of the First World War.

Today’s tributes came 24 hours after a sombre silence fell across the region’s towns and cities as thousands gathered to remember their war dead on the last Remembrance Sunday before the centenary of the start of the First World War.

Huge crowds were already lining Ferensway in Hull city centre just after 10am as a harmony in brass announced the arrival of the 150 (Yorkshire) Transport Regiment Band, playing as they marched towards the city’s main war memorial.

They were followed by a contingent from the Royal Navy, the senior service, the Army and the RAF, with spontaneous applause breaking out as they were in turn followed by standard bearers and a veterans’ parade, led by one in a wheelchair and another on a mobility scooter.

Other units assembled beside the memorial, some immaculate in full dress uniform, while others such as the Army Cadets wore their combat fatigues.

From across the road came religious leaders, civic dignitaries and aldermen in their tricorn hats, the city’s three MPs – Alan Johnson, Diana Johnson, and Karl Turner – senior figures from the emergency services including the coastguard, two Boy Scouts and two schoolchildren.

They would take part in the wreath-laying ceremony after a bugler sounded the Last Post to mark the beginning of the two-minute silence at 11am.

“I think it’s wonderful that it’s commemorated every year,” said Sarah Page, 42. “My dad’s in the parade so I’m very proud of 
him.”

Her father Leslie, 73, from east Hull, was laying a wreath on behalf of the Nuclear Veterans’ Association.

Mr Page, who served in the Royal Engineers, was one of the “guinea pigs” on Christmas Island during the atomic bomb tests in 1957 and 1958 and his family believe his epilepsy is a result of that service.

“They weren’t given any protective clothing,” Ms Page added. “They told them to cover their eyes with their hands and they could see the bones in their hands.”

Ken Knox, 77, former Hull branch chairman of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, was wearing his National Service Medal and Navy Long Service Medal. He did his national service in the Royal Naval Reserve and volunteered to stay on as a captain 
in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service.

“I thought it was absolutely superb,” he said. “I like to watch people’s faces to see what they are making of it, especially the younger ones and 
it’s nice to see there’s a great deal of passion there.”

In Leeds, thousands of people lined Victoria Gardens to pay their respects during a civic service outside Leeds Central Library and Leeds Art Gallery.

Hundreds of serving and former personnel marched from Leeds Civic Hall to the war memorial and a Field of Remembrance was created at St Peter’s Church, in Bramley, with over 650 
crosses bearing the names of soldiers.

The Army Foundation College in Harrogate was involved in half a dozen services, including at Knaresborough, while commemorations were also held in Elvington, near York, home to two French heavy bomber squadrons in the Second World War, and a new sculpture was unveiled in Dalby Forest to commemorate the role of the 
thousands of women involved in the timber industry during the 
war.

Ben Parkinson, the country’s most injured serviceman to survive, was applauded as he walked on his short prosthetic “stubbies” to lay a wreath in Doncaster.