YOUNG and old stood together with their head’s bowed in Huddersfield Market Place as veterans remembered their fallen comrades at the 11th hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Yesterday hundreds of people gathered to see poppy wreaths laid to represent those who had died in conflicts large and small.

This year for the first time members of the newly-formed West Yorkshire branch of the Aden Veterans Association held a ceremony at the Market Cross to remember the hundreds killed in ‘The Forgotten War’ in South Arabia in the 1960s.

Terry Marsden, of Halifax, who organised the event said it was more important today than ever to remember all those who have been killed in action.

He said the Aden forces had been badly let down by the British government during the 1960s.

The West Yorkshire branch, formed this year, is one of nine Aden veterans’ branches nationwide. It has more than 1,600 members and almost 200 overseas.

Veterans travelled to Huddersfield from the Fens, Isle of Man, Rotherham and Liverpool for the event.

Piper Graham Stringer played the tune of the Barren Rocks of Aden, the association’s anthem.

Aden veteran Ted Hodson, from Rotherham, said he had shed a few tears after watching television coverage of soldiers bodies being brought back to Britain from Afghanistan.

And he said it was time to bring British troops home from the conflict.

“We should have never have gone in the first place,” he added.

A two-minutes silence and parade was also held at the war memorial in Greenhead Park.

The event was attended by around 100 people including the mayor of Kirklees Clr Julie Stewart-Turner and the deputy lieutenant of West Yorkshire Peter Sunderland and his wife Margaret.

Bugler Janet Berry of Kirkheaton played the Last Post.

A parade was led by master Keith Lodge, of the Huddersfield and District Army Veterans Association.

The event was organised by Jack West, chairman of the Huddersfield branch of the Royal British Legion.

Huddersfield Grammar School pupils attended the Remembrance Day ceremony at Greenhead Park. Senior School head boy Dominic Kelly and head girl Olivia Simpson, along with the Preparatory School head boy, James Curgenven and head girl Eva Rodgers, laid wreaths at the war memorial in Greenhead Park.

The children have also been selling poppies at school to support the Royal British Legion.

VETERANS joined young children to pay their respects to the fallen in a ceremony at Greenhead Park.

Robert Sugden, secretary and trustee Huddersfield War Memorial Trust, paid tribute to all those who attended, saying you could hear a pen drop during the two minutes silence.

Mr Sugden added: “It was especially nice to see the young pupils of Huddersfield Grammar School and the Veterans talking to each other, with a gap of two or three generations between them.”

At 10.45am the veterans and public walked slowly up to the memorial for the short service of poignant prayers taken by vicar of Huddersfield, the Rev Catherine Ogle.

Jack West, from the Royal British Legion, made the dedication and the deputy lieutenant of West Yorkshire Peter Sunderland laid the first wreath followed by the Mayor of Kirklees, Clr Julie Stewart Turner, representatives of the Army and police, the Huddersfield army veterans, RBL, BLESMA, Huddersfield Grammar School and other organisations.

Later the army veterans moved to Edgerton Cemetery where for the first time a short service of dedication took place. This was also taken by the Rev Ogle, in the presence of the Mayor, at the army veterans’ own memorial in the cemetery.

HUDDERSFIELD poet Simon Armitage paid tribute to his great uncle, who fought in the First World War, as he received an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.

Armitage, who was awarded the honour for his contribution to literature and the arts, said his great uncle Robert Kirby’s war service enabled him to pursue his literary ambitions.

He said: “I want to use this occasion to mention Robert Kirby and his kind who have allowed us to move freely and do our thing.

“I’m honoured and proud to receive this honour and I’m grateful to Sheffield Hallam for recognising me.”