Remembrance Day 2018: How Boston fell silent to remember our World War One heroes on Armistice 100

The centre of Boston fell silent at 11am yesterday at the same moment the guns fell silent 100 years ago to mark the end of the First World War.
Remembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough CouncilRemembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough Council
Remembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough Council

A large turn out packed into the town's Memorial Gardens for a poignant Remembrance Day service.

Crowds spilled into the surrounding roads as the ceremony took place.

Remembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough CouncilRemembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough Council
Remembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough Council
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The town joined the entire nation in a moving tribute to those lost in the Great War and the many lost in conflicts before and since.Representatives of the armed services mustered in the Market Place in Boston to parade to the war memorial, standards flying proud and to the tune of a marching band.

The centenary of the end of the Great War was a focus for the service and gave special poignancy. In First World War uniform and flanking the war memorial were soldiers, sailors, airmen and a nurse, adding to the atmosphere of the event.

The 1918 Armistice signalled the end of four years of hostilities in which, worldwide, 19 million died. 700,00 of them were British soldiers. Including deaths and injuries there were 40 million casualties.

The service was led by the Rev Alyson Buxton, supported in prayers by colleagues from Boston Stump.

Remembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough CouncilRemembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough Council
Remembrance Service in Boston - pictures courtesy of Boston Borough Council
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The two-minutes' silence was preceded by The Act of Homage ("We will remember them") and the playing of the Last Post by a lone bugler.

Lowered standards were raised as the Reveille sounded, at which point the sun came out, greeted by a peal of bells from Boston Stump.

The Kohima Epitaph followed ("...for your tomorrow we gave our today") and then the laying of a red carpet of wreaths around the war memorial by young and old and representatives of the services and the many organisations present.Mayor of Boston, Cllr Judith Skinner, laid a poppy cross at the First World War Centenary Memorial, originally installed in 2014 on the occasion of the centenary of the beginning of the First World War.

This memorial, with a new carved inscription to mark the centenary of the end of that war (the poem In Flanders field) was rededicated. It was flanked by two specially-commissioned life-sized metal sculptures of two First World War "There But Not There" Tommys .Final prayers were said by the Bishop of Grantham before a parade to the Stump for a service of community remembrance.The weekend's remembrance observations began on Friday with the traditional opening of Boston's Memorial Gardens by the Mayor.Schoolchildren placed their own crosses in Central Park with the name of a "Boston Fallen Service Person" on each one.The Mayor attended on Saturday when the Polish community marked its Remembrance Day and the centenary of Polish Independence Day at the Polish Saturday Club held at Park Academy.