SILENCE fell across Dorset on Sunday as thousands of people came together to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.

Remembrance Sunday parades and services were held in villages and towns across Dorset and the New Forest.

As dawn broke, a lone piper played the poignant Battle's O'er at Bournemouth's war memorial.

A small crowd gathered at the memorial in Bournemouth Gardens at 6am to hear piper, Major Ewen Stuart, play The Battle is Over, a traditional air played by pipers after a battle.

It was a ceremony replicated at memorials across Dorset and across the country.

Later in the morning, communities came together at memorials for the traditional tribute to the fallen.

The men and women who were killed in the "storm of war" were remembered in Bournemouth as Reverend Ian Terry, team rector for the town centre, said: "We remember with thanksgiving and sorrow those whose lives, in world wars and conflicts past and present, have been given and taken away."

Hundreds of people gathered in Bourne Avenue and The Avenue around the war memorial in the Central Gardens to watch the parade and service.

The youth contingent, made up of scouting groups and cadets, set off from Exeter Crescent at 10.30am, followed by Royal British Legion standard bearers and veterans.

A few minutes before 11am, councillors and civic officials paraded down to the memorial from the town hall, alongside military personnel, religious leaders, mayor Cllr Derek Borthwick and Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns.

The Last Post was sounded, followed by two minutes silence marked by the firing of a field gun.

In Poole, hundreds gathered around Poole Park’s recently refurbished war memorial, after a parade made up of dozens of serving military personnel, veterans, uniformed youth groups, and civic dignitaries set off from the cricket pavilion led by the Poole Sea Cadets Marching Band.

The procession made its way through an avenue of trees wrapped in red cloth before arriving at the war memorial.

The was Poole Borough Band accompanied the congregation in hymns before a salute from the Poole Field Gun Display Team marked the beginning and end of the two minutes’ silence.

Wreaths were then laid at the memorial by the Mayor of Poole, Cllr Sean Gabriel, along with representatives from all three military branches, police, the Scouts, and other organisations.

Crowds lined the High Street in Christchurch for the parade led by the Royal British Legion band Christchurch branch, before a special wreath laying service in the Garden of Remembrance in the Priory grounds.

The Priory Church was packed to the rafters for the Service of Remembrance, with standing room only.

Led by the Reverend Canon Charles Stewart, he welcomed the congregation saying: "I can think of no more fitting an honour for those who we remember this day but to see so many people here at the Priory."

He said: "One hundred years ago this morning, the Armistice was signed that brought an end to the First World War.

"Today, we have come to remember before God those who have died for their country in that war that was meant to end all wars, but did not; and alongside them those who died in the Second World War, and the many conflicts of the years that have followed.

"Some we knew and loved; we treasure their memory still. Others are unknown to us, though not to God: we remember them with equal honour."