A HUSH fell over Huddersfield yesterday as the millions who have lost their lives in battle were remembered.
Across the town two minutes' silence was observed at 11am to mark the moment when the guns finally stopped firing in 1918, signalling the end of the First World War.
In that bloody conflict alone as many as 10m people died.
Remembrance Day now commemorates the war dead of every conflict with British involvement since.
In Greenhead Park a procession of ex-Servicemen laid wreaths and paid tribute to their fellow comrades in arms.
Pupils from Huddersfield Grammar School's pre-preparatory department were also there to pay their respects.
Tom Caselli, 85, from Marsden, was a member of one of the last mounted cavalry regiments, The Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons.
He joined the Territorial Army in 1937 and spent the beginning of the Second World War on horseback in Palestine.
He said: "It is very important that we can come together as a nation and remember those who gave their lives during the wars.
"It is great to see young people here learning about what has gone before. That is one of the biggest reasons Remembrance day is so important, so future generations carry on remembering."
Mr Caselli left the Queen's Own in the early 1940s and joined the Commandos.
"I went to Crete after Palestine and ended up spending four years as a prisoner of war," he said.
"I lost friends in the war and this day is for them and the thousands of others who never came home."
Royal British Legion welfare officer Richard Flynn, of Gledholt, said he was pleased at the support of the public.
The 77-year-old former Royal Engineer said: "This tradition is such an important part of us saying thank you to those who gave up everything. It is hard for people to imagine what it must have been like for those men and their families, but it is good to see so many people recognise the debt they owe."
The service had extra poignancy because the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, which recruits heavily in Huddersfield, is on a tour of duty in Basra, Iraq.
Veterans from the Dukes laid wreaths in honour of fallen colleagues.
