Plans outlined for Horsham Armistice and Remembrance services

On Armistice Day (Saturday November 11) there will be a short service for those who wish to remember the war fallen on the ‘eleventh hour of the eleventh day’.

Prayers will be said by the Rev Canon Lisa Barnett and the Exhortation delivered by the chairman of the Horsham Branch of the Royal British Legion Zäl Rustom. The Last Post will be sounded by Horsham District Council leader Martin Boffey.

There will be a one-minute silence at 11am. Official wreaths will then be laid and once the service has ended the war memorial in Horsham’s Carfax will open for public wreath laying.

Remembrance Sunday is the day traditionally put aside to remember all those who have given their lives in war. It was originally conceived as a commemoration of the war dead of the First World War but after the Second World War, the scope of the ceremony was extended to focus on the nation’s dead of both World Wars, and in 1980 it was widened once again to extend the remembrance to all who have suffered and died in conflict in the service of their country and all those who mourn them.

On Remembrance Sunday a Remembrance Parade will proceed down North Street, through East Street and into the Carfax to arrive at the war memorial at around10.50am.

Led by the Rev Lisa Barnett, the service will begin with prayers and the hymn 'O God Our Help in Ages Past'. This will be followed by The Last Post.

The vicar will then lead the Exhortation: 'They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.'

A two minute silence, in memory of the fallen, will then be held at 11am.

Horsham District Council chairman David Skipp will lead the wreath laying on behalf of the people of the district. He will be followed by Horsham British Legion chairman Zäl Rustom. Horsham MP Jeremy Quin will lay a third wreath, and a fourth will be laid by West Sussex County Councillor Christian Mitchell.

Representatives of the armed services and youth organisations will then lay their wreaths, each as a mark of solemn respect. When the last wreath has been laid, the Parade Marshall will call the parade to attention and one verse of the National Anthem will be sung. A blessing and Thanksgiving Prayer will mark the end of the service at the War Memorial.

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A church service will follow at St Mary’s Parish Church in the Causeway, Horsham, to which everyone is invited.

Working with the Church and Horsham District Council, the Royal British Legion is the main local organiser of Horsham's Remembrance Sunday service. A number of other services will also take place in towns and villages throughout the district on the day.