Marlborough stopped and fell silent at 11am this morning, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – on the centenary of the very first two-minute silence.
Traffic came to a halt in the High Street, passers by took a couple of minutes to stay where they were and reflect, and even the bin men stopped filling the recycling truck that had reached the side of the Town Hall.
On the steps of the Town Hall students from St John’s paid their respects to their forebears – great, or even great, great grandparents who had endured the horrors of the Great War. They stood, with the Town counillors, members of 4MI, the Royal British Legion and representatives of many organisations within the town who were marking their respect to the 100th silence.
Members of Marlborough’s adopted Batallion, 4MI, the Town Council, students from St Johns and representatives from Marlborough’s British legion branch then marched down to the 7th Wilts War Memorial adjacent to the intersection of London Road and Salisbury Road for wreaths to be laid.
Then the Mayor, Mervyn Hall and representatives from 4MI led by Commanding Officer Lt Col Simon Puxley visited Marlborough’s Cemetery to lay wreaths on the graves of service men and women at rest.
Pics of all are below – scroll right to the bottom of the page for all to appear and click any to enlarge.
