In BRIDPORT the Wessex Military Band led the parade which streamed down South Street to the war memorial.

A new Union standard, presented to the town this year and carried by Bridport Sea Cadet Jack Larcombe, 16, of TS Keppel, was at the head of the parade and was dedicated in a ceremony in the town’s parish church.

The standard was donated by a local woman in her 80s who wished to remain anonymous, for the use of the town council and other Bridport organisations.

The firing of a salute, the chiming of the Town Hall clock and the tolling of the bells of St Mary’s Church signalled the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 94 years after the Armistice was signed.

The two-minute silence was held by the parade contingent and members of the public, many with children born almost a century after the outbreak of the First World War.

Young teams playing in the Bridport under-nines football match against Wool and Winfrith at nearby St Mary’s School lined up on the pitch, bearing a giant poppy to keep the silence before kick-off.

As well as civic dignitaries, Royal British Legion members, members of the Burma Star Association, ex-servicemen and women and current members of the forces as well as members of the emergency services, uniformed youth groups and community and voluntary organisations took part and representatives stepped forward to lay wreathes at the war memorial.

Bridport mayor Dave Rickard and mayoress Anne Rickard led the procession into St Mary’s Church for the service led by Bridport Team Rector the Rev Canon Andrew Evans.

Rev Evans paid special tributes to those who fought in the Far East in the Second World War as part of the so-called ‘Forgotten Army’.

He spoke of the moving reconciliation of a former prisoner of war with his Japanese torturer and urged nations to move on from old hatreds and ‘grasp the better way’.

After the service the parade marched back to the Town Hall where the salute was taken by the mayor at Bucky Doo Square.