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Thousands pay tribute to war dead at Remembrance Day services
Nov 8 2009 By Ben Schofield
Remembrance Day 320
MERSEYSIDE united to pay respects to our fallen war dead today.
Moving services were held across the region to mark Remembrance Sunday, 70 years on from the start of World War Two.
Thousands of people lined the streets under umbrellas, with the present-day conflict in Afghanistan prompting large crowds to turn out.
In Liverpool, the Lord Mayor led a huge service by the Cenotaph on St George’s Plateau.
It was the end of a 40-year era for the city as Merseyside’s leading member of the Royal British Legion, Colonel J Graeme Bryson, performed the Act of Remembrance for the last time.
He read the poignant lines for most of the last four decades and helped organise Liverpool’s first Remembrance service after the end of the Second World War.
There were also services in Hamilton Square, Birkenhead; outside the public library in Upton; at Prescot parish church, Huyton Cenotaph and Kirkby municipal buildings; at the Five Lamps war memorial, in Waterloo, and the King’s Gardens war memorial, in Bootle.
The Birkenhead service was touched by particular sadness, coming just days after Corporal Steven Boote, of Prenton, was named as one of five soldiers gunned down by a rogue Afghan policeman.
Col Bryson, 96, of Hightown, served as deputy president of the Merseyside branch of the British Legion under Lord Sefton.
He took over as president in 1969.
The former high court judge, who served with the 89th Field Brigade, based in Aigburth Road, said: “I would have liked to have gone on doing the services, and they would have liked me to have carried on, but I have to sit for most of the proceedings. My mobility was poor today.
“I thought it was one of the very best services I have been to. I think those who marched at the end were more numerous than ever I have seen.
“I do not think people are in favour of the situation in Afghanistan, but they support those who take part in it because they are representing the country and they think it is a good thing to represent their country.
“Whether or not they support the war, they support the soldiers.”
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