Tomorrow (Friday, 11 November) is Armistice Day. And, on Remembrance Sunday (13 November), the country will stop to commemorate the sacrifice of our armed forces, past and present. You can attend a local service; with three key, traditional events being held on the morning.

Armistice Day marks the end of the First World War in 1918 and at 11am there is traditionally a two-minute silence – at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – to remember those who died. This will be held up and down the country tomorrow (Friday) – including outside Ealing Town Hall.

Remembrance Sunday is held on the nearest Sunday to Armistice Day and tends to be when most memorial services are held and it has now come to represent remembrance of all those who have lost lives or made sacrifices because of war, as well as those who put their lives at risk now.

Remembrance Sunday

Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Mohinder Midha, will attend the Remembrance Sunday parade and ceremony at Ealing War Memorial on Ealing Green, in front of Pitzhanger Manor, with a two-minute silence at 11am. The King’s representative, Deputy Lieutenant Richard Kornicki, will be attending the service. Council leader Peter Mason will also be there, along with the council’s chief executive Tony Clements.

Deputy mayor Councillor Hitesh Tailor, and deputy council leader Councillor Deirdre Costigan, will attend the Greenford ceremony and lay wreaths at Greenford War Memorial.

The immediate past mayor of Ealing, Munir Ahmed, will attend and lay a wreath at the Southall War Memorial. A crowd also traditionally gathers in Manor Park at the Southall War Memorial for a service at 11am. The congregation then heads to St John’s Church in Church Road for a short Remembrance Sunday service.

Traditionally, a private ceremony is also held in the same week in Acton, with the mayor attending Acton Care Home. The centre was formerly Acton Cottage Hospital and has the Acton War Memorial in its gardens.

Armistice Day

The guns, cannon and battle cries of the First World War fell silent across Europe on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. The Armistice treaty was signed at 5am in France on November 11, 1918. Six hours later, at 11am, the war officially ended (although some fighting did actually continue on the edges of the conflict). After four years of fighting, The Great War was finally ‘over’.

The first Remembrance Day was held in 1919 throughout Britain and the Commonwealth. Originally called Armistice Day, it commemorated the end of hostilities the previous year. It came to symbolise the end of the war and provide an opportunity to remember those who had died.

You can read more about the origins of our local war memorials.

Read more

Remember to visit the local history section of this website to see lots of stories on how local life, and lives, were affected by the two world wars – including some extraordinary and moving tales of those who fought and died and those who suffered the Nazi’s holocaust.

Photograph of wreaths at Ealing War Memorial is copyright of John Sturrock.