ARMISTICE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25071, 12 November 1942, Page 4

ARMISTICE DAY

OBSERVANCE IN DUNEDIN DIGNIFIED AND IMPRESSIVE The principal 'ceremony in Dunedin this year to commemorate Armistice Day in the war of 1914-18 was held in ths Queen's Gardens yesterday morning under the auspices of the Dunedin Returned Services' Association. It is now-24 years since hostilities betwsen Britain and her allies and Germany and her allies in that war ceased, and services have been held each year throughout the Empire in memory of the fallen. The occasion is recognised officially at the eleventh hour of the eleventh the eleventh month of the year. The service at the Queen's Gafdeni was dignified and impressive, and by its very simplicity made a direct appeal to the heart. There was an attendance of sevsral hundred soldiers of the last war and of this war and members of the general public. Some minutes before 11 o'clock the "Last Post" was sounded by the bugle band of the Otago Boys' High School, and then a wreath of laurel Isaves, emblem of victory, with scarlet poppies for remembrance, was placed at the foot of the memorial by the president of the R.S.A. (Mr Spencer G. Scoular) and the president of the Imperial Exservicemen's Association (Mr. H. Brown). A wreath was later deposited on behalf of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association.

The two minutes' silence followed, a brief prayer was offered by Captain T. G. Campbell, a padre returned from service abroad in the present war, and the High School Band played the reveille. The benediction was pronounced, and the singing of the National Anthem brought the ceremony to a close.

The firing of two rounds by a battery adjacent to the city marked the period of the two minutes' silence.