HUNDREDS of people will hold two minutes’ silence in St Giles on Sunday to honour those who served their country in war.

Lord Mayor of Oxford Rae Humberstone will be joined by former lord mayors, current city councillors and the Lord Lieutenant for Oxfordshire Tim Stevenson OBE for this year’s Remembrance Sunday.

The ceremony will mark the ongoing centenary of the First World War.

St Giles will be officially closed from midnight, but closure signs and cones will be deployed at either end of the street at 6am.

Military personnel will arrive in the St Giles area, specifically Beaumont Street and Keble Road, from 9am.

All military contingents will form up near to the Taylorian Institution Library on the corner of St Giles and Beaumont Street at 10am ready to march to the War Memorial.

At the same time, current and former councillors will assemble for robing in St John’s College where they will be joined by the Lord Lieutenant, the High Sheriff Tom Birch Reynardson, Members of Parliament, representatives of the University and the Burgemeester of Oxford’s Dutch twin town Leiden.

Thames Valley Police Superintendent Christopher Hill will then arrive at the college with members of the council and proceed to the War Memorial for the wreath laying.

At 10.20am Royal British Legion members and all other ex servicemen’s organisation will assemble in St Giles at the bus lay-by next to the Taylorian.

Fifteen minutes later the military contingents formed up in Keble Road will be called to the memorial to take up their respective position by 10.40am.

The 11am service will then commence with Regimental Sergeant Major Christopher Hill indicating to the bugler to sound the Last Post.

He will time the two minutes’ silence at the end of which the bugler will sound the Reveille.

Wreaths will be laid during the singing of Abide with Me and will start immediately after the hymn begins.

The Oxford City Council procession will walk the short distance from St John’s College door to the Cenotaph and lay their wreaths.

Some 400 people of all faiths attended last year’s ceremony on St Giles led by Royal British Legion standard bearer John Harvey, who has been involved for the past 30 years.

Following the service, all units involved will march from the War Memorial along the eastern side of St Giles, passing the Saluting Dais outside St John’s College.

The parade will make a U-turn at the city end of St Giles and return towards the War Memorial via the western side of St Giles where they are likely to fall out on the service road outside St Cross College.