London falls silent to mark Armistice Day on 110th anniversary of Battle of the Somme

The Cenotaph in central London was surrounded by solemn service men and women holding red poppy wreaths and taking time to remember their fallen colleagues from the violence of the 20th century.The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the hour in 1918 when the guns of the First World War fell silent, after a bloody four-year conflict that left up to 22 million people dead and more than 20 million more who were wounded.Defence secretary Wes Streeting lays a wreath at the Cenotaph in WhitehallPAPeople bowed their heads at the Cenotaph PATravellers and staff at Waterloo station stopped to observe the silenceGettySir Lindsay Hoyle lays a wreath during the Armistice Day service at Westminster HallPAThe Duke and Duchess of Gloucester lay a wreath during the Armistice Day service at the Royal British Legion National Remembrance Gardens in Alrewas, StaffordshirePAThis year marks the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, a particularly brutal offensive fought by British and French forces against the German Empire.It lasted for 141 days and killed approximately one million people. The bloodiest day of the offensive was on the first day, July 1, when more than 19,000 British soldiers were killed - and to this day it remains the single bloodiest day in British military history.The Western Front Association lead the ceremony at the Cenotaph, which was attended by defence secretary Wes Streeting, who laid a wreath; politicians, senior international military representatives, schoolchildren and cadets.Special ceremonies were held across the UK today, including at the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield in Staffordshire, at Portsmouth and at Seaham.The Tommy statue, a tribute to the soldiers of the First World War in Dover, Kent, as the nation marks Armistice DayPAMPs and Lords also fell silent in the Houses of Parliament, with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord Speaker Lord Forsyth laying wreaths and observing the two-minute silence at the Angel Memorial inside Westminster Hall.They were joined by Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka who read a poem, before Mr Speaker then processed to the Lower Waiting Hall of the House of Commons for a Turning the Page ceremony remembering Alan Scott Balfour, who died in 1918.The Standard’s annual Remembrance Service was held at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, conducted by the Rt Rev Dr Alison Joyce, to commemorate the Evening Standard workers who died during the First and Second World Wars.Wreaths were laid by editors and a former representative of the Standard van drivers.