Post by Taxigirl on Nov 11, 2004 9:08:26 GMT
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4001577.stm
The service men and women who died fighting for their country are to be honoured at UK-wide ceremonies to mark Remembrance Day.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are to visit the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey after a short service where they will meet veterans.
In line with tradition, there will be a nationwide silence at 1100 GMT.
The British Legion will also stage a flypast and drop 1.3 million poppy petals over the Thames at 1800 GMT.
The Thames will be lit up in red every night until Sunday when the Queen, accompanied by about 9,000 veterans, will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph.
Flanders fields
In Britain, Armistice Day has been a tradition since King George V issued a proclamation in 1919 that "all locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead".
Symbolised by the red poppy and the appeal to raise funds for war veterans, the flowers represent the poppies blowing on the fields of Flanders in World War I.
On Wednesday a delegation of families of those killed or still fighting in the current Iraq war laid a wreath of poppies on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street.
The 11-member group, from the newly-formed Military Families Against the War, included Rose Gentle and Reg Keys, who both lost sons in Iraq.
They said the wreath symbolised the "blood on the doorstep of Tony Blair".
The service men and women who died fighting for their country are to be honoured at UK-wide ceremonies to mark Remembrance Day.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are to visit the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey after a short service where they will meet veterans.
In line with tradition, there will be a nationwide silence at 1100 GMT.
The British Legion will also stage a flypast and drop 1.3 million poppy petals over the Thames at 1800 GMT.
The Thames will be lit up in red every night until Sunday when the Queen, accompanied by about 9,000 veterans, will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph.
Flanders fields
In Britain, Armistice Day has been a tradition since King George V issued a proclamation in 1919 that "all locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead".
Symbolised by the red poppy and the appeal to raise funds for war veterans, the flowers represent the poppies blowing on the fields of Flanders in World War I.
On Wednesday a delegation of families of those killed or still fighting in the current Iraq war laid a wreath of poppies on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street.
The 11-member group, from the newly-formed Military Families Against the War, included Rose Gentle and Reg Keys, who both lost sons in Iraq.
They said the wreath symbolised the "blood on the doorstep of Tony Blair".