On November 11 at precisely 11 a.m. the Remembrance Day service at The Cenotaph on Front Street is preceded by two minutes' silence.

This is because, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 the guns of war in Europe fell silent.

After four years of bitter conflict, the Great War (as it was originally known) was finally over.

The Armistice was signed at 5 a.m. on November 11, 1918 in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne, France, and five hours later, at 11 a.m., the war ended.

In 1919, the first Armistice Day, as Remembrance Day was originally known, took place in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth, commemorating the end of hostilities the previous year.

The event became an annual one, symbolising the end of war and providing an opportunity to remember all those who had given lives in the service of their country.

It was at the end of the Second World War (1939-45) that the name 'Armistice Day' was changed to 'Remembrance Day' to include the dead of both wars.

An Australian journalist, Edward George Honey, is credited with the concept of the two-minute silence.

In a letter published in the London Evening News on May 8, 1919, he proposed that a respectful silence be observed as a way of remembering those who gave their lives in the Great War.

King George V agreed, and on November 7, 1919 issued the proclamation calling for a two-minute silence.