Armistice Day: Kent, Sussex and Surrey hold memorial events

Remembrance ceremonies have been held across the south east of England to mark Armistice Day.

The Armistice, an agreement to end the fighting of the First World War as a prelude to peace negotiations, began at 11:00 GMT on 11 November, 1918.

The Armistice ceremonies across the UK and Europe followed events on Remembrance Sunday.

Silences were held and wreaths were laid at war memorials and cemeteries.

At St Mary’s Church in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, naval veteran Tony Avery was acting as deputy parade marshall.

He said: “It’s a great honour, it means an awful lot to me.

“You’ve got to think of all the people that sacrificed, in the First World War, the Second World War, the Falklands, Afghanistan, Iraq, all those people who gave their lives to keep this country free.”

The Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, Kent, remembers “the individual stories of soldiers” in a special gallery, its director, Rebecca Nash said.

“We have on display 6,000 medals, each with their own individual story of courage, sacrifice and service,” she explained.

Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, which contains more than 4,500 military graves, held ceremonies on Monday at both the Canadian and French plots.

Bob Thomson, senior gardener for the Commonwealth Graves War Commission, told BBC Radio Surrey: “This is the most important time of the year for us.

“We started months ago preparing the grass, managing it through the summer and the autumn, leaf collection, headstone and border cleanliness, weeding, pruning.”

Canon Peter Bruinvels, military liaison officer for Surrey County Council, told BBC Radio Surrey the level of support for remembrance events had been very strong across the weekend.

“In Dorking, 2,000 people turned up at St Martin’s Church. It has been incredible the level of support.

“So far, 30m poppies have been distributed and 6m pin poppies,” he said.