Lest We Forget.
One hundred years after the end of the First World War, hundreds of people gathered in Sidney to pay their respects to those who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces over the course of the last century.
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Beginning with the Parade of Veterans along Beacon Avenue, the public lined the town’s sidewalks as members of the CAF, RCMP, 676 Kitty Hawk Sidney Air Cadets and others wound their way to the cenotaph at Sidney Town Hall.
Led by Town Crier Kenny Podmore, the official ceremony began at 10:50 a.m. and included a flypast, two minutes of silence and a wreath laying.
As well, following the national anthem and renditions of “God Save The Queen” and “Taps” the John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields was recited before a crowd of hundreds gathered along Sidney Avenue and across the front lawn of Town Hall.
“We gather here to pay tribute to those who gave the supreme sacrifice in the past and present wars and conflicts,” Podmore said.
A second ceremony is planned for 4:30 p.m. at the cenotaph to ring 100 bells marking the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, emulating the moment in 1918 when church bells across Europe tolled the end of four years of war.
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Bells will ring across Canada, at Parliament Hill as well as city halls, places of worship, military bases and on naval vessels.
The public is invited to attend the Bells of Peace Commemorative Ceremony at 4:30 p.m. at Sidney Town Hall (2440 Sidney Avenue).
Scroll down to see photos from the ceremony at Sidney Town Hall:
