Wreath cast upon Thames in Armistice Day tribute
THE vessel that carried Sir Winston Churchill’s coffin on its last journey on the Thames 44 years ago was back on the river this-morning for a soulful Remembrance service on board. Maj Gen Keith Cima cast a wreath of poppies onto the water opposite the Houses of Parliament as Big Ben struck 11
By Mike Brooke, Pictures: Olivia Harris
THE vessel that carried Sir Winston Churchill’s coffin on its last journey on the Thames 44 years ago was back on the river this-morning for a soulful Remembrance service on board.
Maj Gen Keith Cima cast a wreath of poppies onto the water opposite the Houses of Parliament as Big Ben struck 11.
The Havengore arrived at the head of a flotilla of small vessels for the Armistice service, sailing upriver from St Katharine’s Pier by the Tower of London.
It was the same route it took in the State funeral of Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime leader, in January 1965.
You may also want to watch:
The service stopped briefly as Big Ben chimed 11, for a two-minute silence as the nation remembered those who fell in two world wars.
The silence was broken by a bugler sounding The Last Post as Maj Gen Cima threw the wreath onto the water.
Most Read
- 1 Driver arrested after police 'drugs patrol' stops car in Whitechapel
- 2 Teenager found dead in Victoria Park
- 3 Two in five people in Tower Hamlets may have had Covid-19
- 4 Leyton Orient sign Dan Kemp on a permanent deal from West Ham United
- 5 Drug and alcohol abuse by Tower Hamlets parents and children soars
- 6 'Laptop bonanza' for schoolchildren in Poplar to help survive lockdown gloom
- 7 'I can save the planet with my seaweed' scientist in east London claims
- 8 Students in rent strike over Queen Mary's campus staying open during Covid emergency
- 9 Post deliveries in east London hit by Covid crisis among Royal Mail staff
- 10 Gun seized after woman tells police she was threatened in Whitechapel
Armistice Day, when the guns fell silent in the Great War on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, took on a special significance this year.
The last British serviceman alive to see active service at the Front was Henry Allingham, originally from Clapton in East London, who died earlier this year at 113.
The Rev Roger Hall, padre of the Tower of London who conducted the service on the Havengore, said: “This is a watershed moment. It is the first year there are no First World War veterans left, a year in which we now also remember the troops fighting in Afghanistan.”
Spectators who lined the Embankment and Westminster Bridge for a glimpse the Havengore heard the service being relayed on loud-speakers.