For Remembrance Day this year, the London Office had the opportunity to participate in many wreath-laying occasions to honour Bermudians past and present who have served in the Armed Forces and at home in the Royal Bermuda Regiment.

On Monday November 7^th, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, opened the Constituency Garden on Remembrance at Neal’s Yard on Parliament Grounds. Our UK Representative, Ms Kimberley Durrant, planted a cross on behalf of Bermuda, to memorialise the Bermudians who fought in the First and Second World Wars.

On Friday November 11^th, on invitation from Ilford North MP Wes Streeting and David Martin of the Fairlop Heritage Group, Ms Durrant laid a wreath at Fairlop Waters Country Park as part of a moving ceremony attended by local residents and students from John Bramston Primary School. Every year, the Fairlop Heritage Group selects a country to honour from one of the seventeen nationalities who served at Fairlop’s airbase during World War II, and this year chose to celebrate the service of Bermudians who enlisted in the British Armed Forces. In particular, they remembered Flight Sergeant F R Burnard, who served at RAF Fairlop, Squadron 64 from 1942 to 1943.

Lastly, as part of the National Service of Remembrance on Remembrance Sunday, our UK Representative laid a wreath on behalf of the people of Bermuda at the Cenotaph on Whitehall. This is the third year in the history of the service that representatives of the Overseas Territories have been invited to lay wreaths in recognition of the contributions of citizens from each Territory.

In Bermuda, Friday November 11^th was a national holiday to allow the public to commemorate Armistice Day. The Governor, Rena Lalgie, led a delegation of dignitaries to mark the 104^th anniversary of the end of World War I at the Cenotaph outside the Cabinet Office, where two minutes of silence were observed at 11am before a parade along Front Street was led by the Royal Bermuda Regiment Band and Corps of Drums.