|
Torchlight Marks Solemn WWI Ceremony at Tower of London
November 4, 2018 Thousands of lit torches in the dry moat surrounding the Tower of London marked the 100th year since the ending of World War I. 
Members of the military and volunteers lit the torches, during a ceremony that featured special music, by composer Mira Calix, punctuated by words from Sonnets to a Soldier, a collection of poems by American poet Mary Borden, who also served as a nurse for the French Red Cross during the war. 
The ceremony also featured a minute of silence for the dead or injured. Nearly 900,000 British and Colonial soldiers died during the war. More than 1.6 million were injured. The four-year conflict, then called the Great War, ended officially on November 11, 1918. Ceremonies are planned in many places around the world on the centenary of that day. The Tower of London torches ceremony will be repeated every night, through Nov. 11, Armistice Day. Also at the Tower of London, in 2014 to mark the 100th year since the beginning of the war, was a huge display of poppies, the flower associated with the war. |
Social Studies for Kids |
Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2019
David White
