Communities across Hampshire and Sussex marked Armistice Day on Wednesday 11 November with the 2 minute silence 11 November at 11am. The silence recalled 108 years since the guns fell silent at the end of the First World War in 1918.
Services of remembrance took place at war memorials, churches and public spaces. That spread meant the observance reached people in different settings, from civic ceremonies to gatherings inside churches, all timed to the same national pause.
Portsmouth Cathedral and Guildhall Square
A special Armistice Day service began at the Cenotaph in Guildhall Square in Portsmouth at 10.45am. The ceremony included readings and poems before the traditional two-minute silence at 11am, while Portsmouth Cathedral also observed the silence.
Members of the public were invited to gather in the Nave at Portsmouth Cathedral. In Portsmouth, the remembrance took place through both an outdoor civic service and a church observance, giving people two ways to join the same moment at the same time.
Southampton and Chichester
The city's main civic commemorations in Southampton took place on Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph in Watts Park, and the memorial remains a focal point for remembrance in Southampton. Residents in Southampton were encouraged to take part in the national two-minute silence at 11am.
In Chichester, the city's main civic Remembrance Sunday service took place at Litten Memorial Gardens, and people in Chichester were encouraged to observe the national silence at 11am. The timing linked the local services to the wider Armistice Day observance across Hampshire and Sussex.
Bognor Regis remembrance
Bognor Regis marked Armistice Day with a ceremony at the War Memorial outside the Town Hall in Clarence Road. Representatives from the Royal Air Forces Association's Bognor Regis branch attended the commemoration, adding a local veterans' presence to the public observance.
Remembrance Sunday was marked on 8 November this year, which left Armistice Day on 11 November to carry the national silence itself. The result was a week in which local communities in Hampshire and Sussex moved from Sunday services to the wider 11am pause on Wednesday.
