THE town of Alton fell silent on Armistice Sunday, turning back the clock to the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month exactly 100 years ago, when the gunfire ceased over the fields of Flanders to mark the end of the Great War.

As they stood, young and old with heads bowed in remembrance, beneath an almost clear blue sky, thoughts of those harrowing, blood stained years and the human suffering and loss where disturbed only by the innocent murmuring of small children – our hope for a more enlightened and peaceful future.

In the evening people gathered at St Lawrence Church for ‘Battle’s Over’ – a nationwide tribute marking 100 years since the end of the Great War, or at St Lawrence CE Primary School for poetry recitals and readings about life in Alton during and after the First World War. This was followed by the lighting of a First World War Beacon of Light signifying the light of peace that emerged from the darkness of four years of war.

* For a comprehensive Remembrance Day round-up from in and around Alton, including moving accounts of the Great War and pictures, see this week’s Alton Herald.