12:18pm Wednesday 9th November 2005
By Staff reporter
WAR veterans from across the district will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in St Albans city centre on Sunday.
Dressed in his ceremonial robes, St Albans Mayor Malcolm MacMillan will meet veterans outside BHS, in St Peter's Street at 10.25am before marching to the war memorial outside St Peter's Church for a Remembrance Service.
He will be joined by a contingent from HMS St Albans, local Army Cadets, Sea Cadets, district council officers and members and Aldermen, parish representatives and scouts.
Councillor MacMillan said: "It is essential that those of us who have never experienced war, continue to remember those who gave their lives that we might live in a free and democratic society today."
At 10.45am Reverend David Brentnall, the vicar of St Peter's Church and the Padre for the British Legion, will conduct the remembrance service.
Following prayers, hymns and the Act of Remembrance, the last post will be sounded and the standards dipped at 11am. The president of the St Albans Branch of the Royal British Legion will then declaim the Exhortation.
A gun will be fired to mark the start and finish of a two-minute silence.
A Burma Star Association member will speak the Kohima Epitaph, the Reveille will be sounded and the standards raised.
A short hymn will be sung before the mayor lays the first wreath. After the National Anthem, he will lead the procession down the street towards Barclays Bank where he will take the salute.
At 11am on Friday, November 11, a maroon rocket will be fired on Bernards Heath to mark the beginning of the Armistice Day two-minute silence.
At the same time, the Mayor will pay his respects outside the war memorial in St Peter's Street.
Fire alarms will be sounded at St Albans District Council offices to mark the start of a two-minute silence as a sign of respect for all those who died in war.
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