The Remembrance Service at Southern Cemetery ............... today

Today  marks the end of the Great War and comes only a few weeks after the  end of the Battle of the Somme which had begun in July 1916.

Later today there will be a service of Remembrance at Southern Cemetery.

Uppermost in my mind will be another ceremony held to mark the start of the Battle of the Somme on July 1st.

It was a solemn and moving act of remembrance attended by civic signatories, staff from the cemetery, local schools and representatives of the British Legion as well as member of the public.

And because July 1st  is also Canada Day it was fitting that Major David Charron of the Royal Canadian Army had been invited to lay a wreath for those men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who are buried amongst their comrades from other Commonwealth armies.

To day's ceremony which will begin at 10.45 at the First World War memorial in Southern Cemetery will be followed by a minutes silence, and then conclude with the Last Post and a reading of the poem in Flanders Fields by David Harrop.

After which people are invited to visit Mr Harrops’ World War Exhibition at the Remembrance Lodge.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Pictures; from the Somme Service, July 1 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson