Hundreds gather to mark Armistice Day in Edinburgh’s Garden of Remembrance

Hundreds of people have gathered at the Garden of Remembrance in Edinburgh for a ceremony to mark Armistice Day.

Members of the public defied the pouring rain on Tuesday morning to gather at the site, at foot of the Scott Monument in the capital’s Princes Street Gardens.

A lone piper led off the ceremony shortly before 11am, and three veterans took up position on the grass among the poppy-strewn memorials, one carrying a Union Flag and another carrying a flag of the Parachute Regiment.

After a welcome address and call to remembrance from Reverend Karen Campbell, Lord Provost of Edinburgh Robert Aldridge read out the famous lines from Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen.

A bugler played the Last Post while the flags were lowered to the ground and veterans saluted, before piper Eddie Molyneux from George Heriot’s School struck up a lament.

The one o’clock gun fired from the battlements of the nearby Edinburgh Castle and there followed a two-minute silence in memory of those who have fallen in conflicts over the years.

Many stood with heads bowed during the silence and passers-by on Princes Street also fell quiet.

The silence was ended by a further round fired by the gun, before the bugler played The Rouse.

The Lord Provost led off a small number of wreath-layers, who each laid a poppy wreath in the garden.

Among them were Dr Claire Armstrong, chief executive of the Royal British Legion Scotland, and Retired Colonel Martin Bell of Veterans Scotland.

Attendees were then led in the hymn The Kingdom Come, which was followed by a reading from the Gospel of St Matthew.

The ceremony was concluded with a rendition of the the National Anthem.

Speaking after the event, bugler Thomas Graham described the “very powerful” moment for him to play the Last Post.

“I likely shed a tear, but you wouldn’t notice it because of the rain,” the veteran said.

“It means so much to me.”

Mr Graham, who spent 24 years in the Queen’s Own Highlanders, went on: “I just thought of the people going into battle.

“The ones that just went there because they fought for their country. I could picture it myself. I could feel it.

“It was a really strong feeling”.

He explained that his services as a musician had been in high demand over the last few days at events leading up to Armistice Day.

“On Friday, I played at five cemeteries round Fife, people that had fallen in combat, and people that had just died of different causes,” he said.

“All around Fife. Five in one day.

“Yesterday I played at the British Legion, and today at Princes Street Gardens.”

He added: “Thank you to everybody who turned out today throughout the UK. God bless them all.”