ON a cold and cloudy Remembrance Sunday in Oxford, the sun broke through the clouds at the exact moment The Last Post sounded. The winds died down as more than 1,000 people stood in complete silence to honour the fallen in St Giles.

The silence was broken just as the two minutes ended when a flock of geese honked overhead, and the vicar of St Michael at the North Gate the Very Rev Bob Wilkes, who led yesterday's service joked: "We wondered if we would get a fly-past". 

Scouts, choirboys and police cadets stood shoulder-to-shoulder with soldiers and veterans in the packed crowd from 10.30am. But some members of the forces had been on parade in St Giles from as early as 9am preparing for the ceremony.

Oxford Mail:

Corunna Band and Bugles of Oxfordshire (The Rifles) Army Cadet Force ready in St Giles

Bugle Major James Dyer, 17, from Banbury, marched at the head of the Corunna Band and Bugles of Oxfordshire (The Rifles) Army Cadet Force, who led the parade up St Giles to the memorial.
He said: "I think it's important for us to come out to show respect for all our predecessor Rifles who served in previous conflicts."

Colin Noall (CORR), from Bicester, went to watch his daughter Harriett Shefford, 16, play tuba in the band and said he was "very proud".

Chris Moran, a construction worker from Headington, yesterday thought about his father who served in the Airborne Infantry.

They and hundreds of others filed from the south end of St Giles up to the war memorial, where Lord Mayor of Oxford Rae Humberstone thanked everyone for coming.

Oxford Mail:

Dave Fleming took this picture in Wantage 

Rev Wilkes pointed out what a wide variety of people had turned up, saying: "I trust we can all find our space".

Among those who found their space were the Oxford Quakers, who this year for the first time were officially included in the event programme.

Quaker Penny Ormerod, who lives just off St Giles, said: "We are here to remember the victims of all wars lovingly and respectfully. Our biggest distinction from the main ceremony is that we feel that wars are always part of the problem, never the solution."

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: "The ceremony was, as ever, very moving, and we had a wonderful turnout."

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood paid her respects at Botley Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery alongside current and former servicemen and women.

Oxford Mail:

Among them was Hugh Parry, 90, from Abingdon – a mid-upper gunner on a Lancaster Bomber during the Second World War.
He attended with fellow members of the Oxford Air Crew Association, the number of whom he said sadly dwindles each year.

Mr Parry, who served with 75 New Zealand Squadron, said: "I go because of the losses with which we were familiar when we were in the squadron. At Botley there are 700 war graves, 500 of which are RAF.

"You go back over old times and think how lucky you were that you survived while they died."

In Kidlington police horses led the parade for the service while in Kennington residents came out to pay their respects at the war memorial in the village. 

Remembers of the Royal British Legion in Oxfordshire who help organise Remembrance Sunday each year, attended both events.

Oxford Mail:

The service in Abingdon 

Remembrance Sunday is held on the Sunday closest to Armistice Day, November 11 - the anniversary of the end of fighting in the First World War at 11am on November 11, 1918.

Oxford Mail:

The service in Wantage 

Oxford Mail:

The service in Banbury