ID 85
Title The Roots of Remembrance Day
Broadcast 2006-11-12 00:00:00
Network Radio 4
Presenter Mark Whitaker
Producer Mike Hally
Precis The ingredients of the Remembrance Day service – the Cenotaph, the Last Post, the two-minute silence, the marching veterans and the laying of wreaths – have been in place since just after World War I. But how did this enduring ceremony, so moving in its simplicity and so widely copied in local commemorations in the UK and around the world, come about in the first place? This programme reveals the surprising origins and evolution of Remembrance Day, including the protests that greeted it in some parts of the country in its first year.
Duration 14
Txtime 1899-12-30 11:45:00
Repeat
Rpttime
Description Many people know that Edward Lutyens designed the simple symbolic “Cenotaph” (literally “empty tomb”), but the man who created the whole ritual has been largely forgotten as far as his link with Remembrance Day is concerned. It was Lord Curzon, lovee of pageantry and supreme organiser, who was asked to create a “Victory March” on 19 July 1919, also dubbed “Peace Day”. To his great credit Curzon put aside his preference for pomp and aristocracy, aiming instead for “poignant simplicity rather than high-ranking grandeur” and that “widows and ex-servicemen should be given priority”. Such was the public response to Peace Day that the temporary Cenotaph was hurriedly made permanent and that first march, originally intended as a one-off to rival the French Victory Parade a few days earlier, became an annual event by popular demand, moving in 1920 to the Sunday nearest to November 11th, Armistice Day, where it has remained ever since.

However not everyone was happy with the idea of a Victory March that first year, and the greatest anger came from jobless and homeless ex-servicemen. The most serious opposition occurred in Luton where the town clerk’s office was broken into and burned down. By the time a detachment of serving soldiers arrived to restore order their former comrades were holding an impromptu sing-song around a stolen piano. Half the police force was put on the sick list, nearly all the firemen were injured and for several days Luton was under martial law.

Despite such protests though, the first event was a great success and a very moving one. The following year the King unveiled the new Cenotaph on Armistice Day, followed by a two-minute silence and the Last Post. The Dean of Westminster Abbey proposed that on the same day the body of an unknown soldier be taken from Flanders and buried in the Nave with full military honours and this too was arranged by Curzon with great sensitivity, ensuring that most of the places in the Abbey went to ordinary members of the armed forces.

Again the rituals had such strong popular appeal – a million people visited the Cenotaph and the graveside – that it was clear an annual ceremony of remembrance was required. It was held for the first time on 11 November 1921, with all the basic rituals in place and the eminent historian David Cannadine (a key contributor to this programme) concludes that "here in essence was the ceremonial -- stark but effective -- which was soon to be observed at local war memorials throughout the nation and the Empire. The Remembrance Day rituals as devised by Curzon became the most poignant occasion in the British calendar".

Includes some rarely heard early archive including hymns from the Burial of the Unknown Soldier on 11 Nov 1919 – the first electrical disc recording to be made outside a studio

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