Two minute silence

 

This morning at 11am many people will stand silently for two minutes in memory of war dead.  It's an act which includes people of all faiths or none.

The two-minute silence wasn’t originally at 11am and it didn’t start here in the UK.  Rather, it started in Cape Town, South Africa around 1916 and there was a daily silence initiated by the daily firing of the noon day gun on Signal Hill for a full year from 14 May 1918 to 14 May 1919  It was known as the Two Minute Silent Pause of Remembrance. 

The first minute was a time of thanksgiving for those who had returned alive, the second minute was to remember the fallen.   To start the silence a bugler sounded the "Last Post", and the "Reveille" was played at the end of the pause.

A Reuters correspondent in Cape Town cabled a description of the event to London. Within a few weeks Reuters' agency in Cape Town received press cables from London stating that the ceremony had been adopted in two English provincial towns and later by others, including in Canada and Australia.

Sir Percy Fitzpatrick was moved by the idea (he had lost a son) and his local church adopted the practice.   Writing to Lord Milner, then Colonial Secretary, he proposed that this become an official part of the annual service on Armistice Day.  Milner raised the idea with Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary, who informed the King,   George V was enthusiastic and a press statement was released from the Palace on 7 November 1919.

To all my people,

     Tuesday next, 11 November, is the first anniversary of the armistice, which stayed the world-wide carnage of the four preceding years, and marked the victory of right and freedom.  I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it. To afford an opportunity for the universal expression of this feeling it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities.   During that time, except in the rare cases where this may be impracticable, all work, all sound, and all locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead. No elaborate organisation appears to be necessary.  At a given signal, which could easily be arranged to suit the circumstances of each locality, I believe that we shall all gladly interrupt our business and pleasure, whatever it may be, and unite in this simple service of silence and remembrance.   GEORGE R.I.