Thousands take part in ‘people’s procession’

Thousands of marchers passed the Cenotaph for a “people’s procession” 100 years after Armistice Day.

The march, described as a “nation’s thank you” to all those who fought in the First World War, saw descendants of veterans from across the country join together on Remembrance Sunday.

The march started in the Mall before turning into Whitehall, where about 10,000 people streamed past the Cenotaph memorial which looked over hundreds of poppy wreathes.

Marion Lewis and her sister Dorothy Heslop were marching for their grandfather, Private John Waters of the 23rd Battalion Middlesex Regiment.

He received a serious head wound at the Somme in October 1916 which left him missing part of his skull.

As girls growing up, it was an unspoken rule not to ask granddad about the war, they said.

Ms Heslop said: “They did not expect him to survive so they left him outside the medical tent and we think it’s the cold that probably saved him.”

Wearing poppies and medals and carrying wreaths, hundreds gathered from 9am to mark 100 years since the guns fell silent.