Remembrance Ceremony – 11th November (Armistice Day)

At Lochnagar, the Armistice Day commemorations on the 11th specifically honour all those who fell in the Great War. But with the launch of the new Foundation, we are increasingly mindful of the suffering caused by subsequent and current conflicts around the world.

The Armistice Day ceremony is particularly moving and evocative, often taking place in bitterly cold weather. At Lochnagar we remember both the men and women who suffered in the 1914-18 war, (known as ‘the war to end war’) but we also we reflect on the millions since who have tragically fallen in later conflicts. To honour those who fell in the Great War, the Foundation seeks to remind people around the world of the consequences of all wars and inspire them to strive for a life of more peace, tolerance and understanding.

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918, the guns fell silent on the western Front. For Britain and her allies, the moment the conflict ceased became a sacred moment in time and every year since then, the soldiers, men and women who died in the Great War have been remembered by the laying of wreaths. This ceremony is still replicated in every city, town and village throughout the country and no hamlet, however small, is without its war memorial as is the Village of La Boisselle on the Somme, France.

At 10am each year (l/c) an assembly of the villagers (l/c) Ovillers-la-Boisselle, Friends of Lochnagar and others at the French War Memorial; then at the 34th Divisional Memorial at the northern tip of the village and finally at the Tyneside Scottish and Tyneside Irish Memorial Seat at the southern tip of the village. These very emotional wreath laying services take approximately an hour, after which all present are invited to a Vin d’Honneur in the La Boisselle Village school hall. There is a further ceremony at 1pm at the Lochnagar Crater Memorial where the congregation and Friends gather for a small wreath laying ceremony, usually led by the Founder and Chairman of the Friends of Lochnagar Richard Dunning MBE, owner of the Lochnagar Crater Memorial.

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