Armistice Day services held across the UK and Scotland

Centre · 1Services were held across the UK and around the world on Wednesday 11 November to mark Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War One. 1 Centre · 2A national two-minute silence took place at 11:00 GMT to mark the end of the war and to remember those who have died in all conflicts since. 1 2 Centre · 1The BBC said the Cenotaph service in Whitehall would be attended by government ministers, senior international military figures, schoolchildren and cadets, while at Westminster Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord Speaker Lord Forsyth would lay wreaths and Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka would read a poem. 1

Centre · 1A ceremony was also planned at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and in Paris French President Emmanuel Macron attended a ceremony where a wreath was laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 1 Centre · 1The Armistice, an agreement to end the fighting of World War One as a prelude to peace negotiations, began at 11:00 on 11 November 1918. 1 Centre · 1In Scotland, the one o'clock gun at Edinburgh Castle fired at 11am to mark the start of the silence, and a short service at the Garden of Remembrance in Princes Street Gardens was led by Rev Dr Karen Campbell, national chaplain of Royal British Legion Scotland. 2

Centre · 1Wreaths were laid by Edinburgh Lord Provost Robert Aldridge, Royal British Legion Scotland chief executive Claire Armstrong, Poppyscotland chief executive Leanne Bonner and others. 2 Centre · 1Commemorations also took place at the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle, at Glasgow's George Square and elsewhere, and the Scottish Parliament held its own commemoration. 2 Centre · 1Among those at the Edinburgh service was Alex Hunter, nephew of Victoria Cross recipient Thomas Peck Hunter and cousin of First Minister John Swinney, who said his family remember their relative's sacrifice every 11 November. 2

Centre · 1Thomas Peck Hunter, a 21-year-old Royal Marines corporal, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for drawing German machine gun fire at the battle of Lake Comacchio in the closing stages of the Second World War; he was killed by a stray bullet after forcing enemy troops to surrender. 2 Centre · 1Speaking to the Press Association, Mr Hunter said he lost three uncles in the war and that it is important to remember the families of those who fell, adding of his grandmother: "I think my gran suffered for the rest of her life." 2 Centre · 1The BBC also noted that on Remembrance Sunday King Charles III led the nation in a two-minute silence in London and laid a wreath at the Cenotaph before a march-past by 10,000 armed forces veterans. 1