UK attractions celebrate historic centenary Remembrance Sunday

The Tower of London and the Imperial War Museums were among the UK attractions to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War 1 yesterday (11 November).

More than 10,000 flames were lit at the Tower of London to mark the centenary in a ceremony called Beyond the Deepening Shadow: The Tower Remembers, which saw armed forces service people and volunteers lighting flames to illuminate the Tower of London and its empty moat.

Meanwhile, the Imperial War Museums, in London and Manchester, hosted the final leg of the Poppies Tour, which started at the Tower of London in 2014. Several thousand handmade ceramic poppies were on display at both, with the London leg seeing poppies pour from a window in the dome that sits atop the museum.

Perhaps the most ambitious project, Pages of the Sea, was held nationwide at 28 beaches – created by British Hollywood film director Danny Boyle. Large portraits of World War 1 tragedies were drawn into the sand and washed away by the tide, while a poem Boyle commissioned British poet Carol-Ann Duffy was read out at each of the beaches.

Boyle said: “We wanted to create a partner to the more formal ceremony that happens at the cenotaphs around the country every year. It’s not an alternative to the Cenotaph, but it’s a complement to that – and it’s to try and make a more community-based gesture.”

On that line, the Cenotaph in London held its annual National Service of Remembrance with a special Nation’s Thank You procession for the centenary year.

Elsewhere, there was a special Festival of Remembrance concert at the Royal Albert Hall and the annual Fields of Remembrance across the UK at Gateshead, Belfast, the National Memorial Arboretum, Cardiff, Westminster Abbey and Royal Wootton Bassett.