We will remember them – and here’s where and when

The first ceremony as people in Brighton and Hove prepare for a weekend of remembrance is scheduled to take place this morning (Thursday 9 November).

Services and ceremonies are also due to be held on Armistice Day (Saturday 11 November) and on Remembrance Sunday.

Today at 10.45am at the War Memorial, in Old Steine, Brighton, a blessing is expected to take place in the Garden of Remembrance.

The mayor of Brighton and Hove is expected to recite the stanza from the Laurence Binyon poem For the Fallen which starts “They shall grow not old” as well as the Kohima.

The Kohima Epitaph was engraved on the memorial of the 2nd British Division in the cemetery of Kohima (North-East India).

It reads: “When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

On Saturday at 10.50am there is due to be an Armistice Day service at the Old Steine War Memorial, in Brighton, including a two-minute silence.

At 10.55am on Saturday a similar service is expected to be held at the War Memorial in Grand Avenue, Hove, and another at 11am at the War Memorial at the Village Green, in Rottingdean.

On Sunday, the first service is due to start at 9am at the Royal Sussex Regiment Memorial, at the seafront end of Regency Square, in Brighton. The event is being organised by the Royal Sussex Regimental Association.

Anyone wishing to attend is asked to arrive 10 minutes beforehand.

Also on Sunday, at 10.50am, crowds are expected at the Old Steine War Memorial, in Brighton, for a parade and service, followed by the laying of wreaths.

Anyone wishing to attend is asked to arrive by 10.30am.

A wreath-laying ceremony is also due to be held at the Easthill Park Memorial, in Manor Road, Portslade, at 11am. Anyone wishing to attend is asked to arrive by 10.45am.

Two short wreath-laying ceremonies are planned for 11am on Sunday at Hove Cemetery, in Old Shoreham Road. The first at the North Gate Memorial, followed by the second at the South Gate Memorial.

The annual parade and service in Rottingdean is scheduled for 11.30am on Sunday, with the parade setting off from the lower High Street to The Green for a remembrance service at noon.

In Hove at 2.30pm on Sunday there is due to be a short service and wreath-laying ceremony at the War Memorial, in Grand Avenue, followed by a march past and salute.

The parade is then due to head to All Saints Church for the main civic memorial service.

A crowd is expected and people are asked to arrive by 2.20pm.

Brighton and Hove City Council said that the some roads would be closed on Sunday.

• Brighton – Pavilion Parade, Old Steine, Castle Square, North Street, the Aquarium Roundabout and Madeira Drive from around 10am to noon.
• Hove – Grand Avenue, Church Road and The Drive from around 1.45pm to 3.30pm.
• Portslade – Locks Hill, Manor Road and Easthill Way from around 10.25am to 10.50am.
• Rottingdean – High Street and The Green from around 11.30am to 1pm.

Councillor Amanda Grimshaw, Brighton and Hove City Council’s armed forces champion, said: “Remembrance Day is an important opportunity for all the city’s diverse communities to come together to remember and honour the sacrifice of all those who have lost their lives because of conflict.

“It’s a time to remember that the ripples of conflict spread far and wide and each person remembered also had families that were affected often for generations. We also remember the innocent lives lost because of conflict.

“We’re very pleased and proud to announce that we’ll now be marking the anniversary of the Battle of the Boar’s Head on 30 June as a part the city’s civic calendar.

“The Royal Sussex Regiment evokes strong connections in the mindset of those residents whose forbears were in the battalions that took part in the attack and others lost whilst serving in other battles.

“Three battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment took part in what was supposed be a diversionary attack on 30 June 1916. In the space of about 3 hours, 366 men lost their lives and a further 1,000 were wounded or captured.

“Sixty-two men from the city died in the battle – the city’s greatest loss of life in one day and scarcely a town or village in Sussex did not have men who were affected.

“As a consequence, it’s known in regimental history as ‘The Day that Sussex died’.

“I’m very pleased we will be able to continue the commemoration of this important anniversary which is a day to remember.

“The next few days will see multiple commemoration services which also acknowledge that Armistice Day signalled a much longed for peace and end of conflict.”