Hundreds of people paid their respects to those who had lost their lives in conflict at the annual Remembrance Sunday parade and service in Southport.
Veterans, serving Armed Forces personnel, cadets and members of the public all gathered at The Monument in Southport town centre in an event organised by Southport Royal British Legion.
Southport MP Damien Moore, Mayor of Sefton Cllr Clare Carragher and Sefton Council Chief Executive Dwayne Johnson were among VIPs in attendance.
Thousands of people supported this year’s Poppy Appeal in Southport, with veterans and cadets selling poppies through the town after this year’s launch by Sefton Mayor Cllr Clare Carragher last Monday.
At the Remembrance service, the story was told to crowds of acclaimed British nurse Edith Cavell, who was executed by a German firing squad during the First World War on 12th October 1915.
She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without discrimination and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium, for which she was arrested under martial law.
She was accused of treason, found guilty by a court-martial and sentenced to death. Despite international pressure for mercy, she was shot by German soldiers.
Her execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage.
The night before her execution, she said: “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”
Veterans and others gathered at the Southport Royal British Legion’s new Veterans Hub in the morning, where they shared hot drinks.
At 10.20am they marched out from The Hub, before marching along Tulketh Street, onto Chapel Street and onto London Street.
At 10.35am the complete parade then marched off, led by the Band of the Salvation Army.
Wreaths were laid at The Monument by a variety of organisations before the gathering crowds sang Abide With Me and the National Anthem before the reading of The Kohima Epitaph – ‘When you go home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today’.
A parade then took place along Lord Street and past Southport Town Hall, where the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, the Mayor of Sefton, the Southport MP, Sefton Council’s Chief Executive, Southport Royal British Legion Chair Major Nick McEntee and other VIPs took the salute.
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