FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon will join with military and civic leaders, service personnel and veterans in Edinburgh today to remember the fallen on Remembrance Sunday.
The event will begin with a parade from Edinburgh Castle to the City Chambers, led by the RAF Central Scotland Pipes and Drums and including veterans, the Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and representatives from the armed services.
At 11am the nation will fall silent for two minutes in an act of remembrance observed around the UK.
Wreaths will be laid at the Stone of Remembrance by the First Minister and others including the city’s lord provost Robert Aldridge, representatives from the UK Government and the wider armed forces and veterans community.
Local Remembrance Sunday events will also be taking place in communities across Scotland.
ScotRail has reminded travellers it will be observing the two-minute silence on its services at 11am.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail’s head of customer operations, said: “ScotRail is proud to play its part in observing the annual silence to remember the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women involved in the two world wars and later conflicts. “If customers are travelling by train on Remembrance Sunday, we would ask that they respectfully observe the two-minute silence at 11am.”
In London, wreaths will be laid by members of the royal family, senior politicians and faith representatives at the Cenotaph in London.
King Charles will be leading the nation for the first time in his role as monarch.
He will lay a new poppy wreath incorporating a ribbon of his racing colours, with the design a tribute to the ones used by both his late mother and his grandfather George VI.
Around 10,000 Royal British Legion veterans, representing 300 different Armed Forces and civilian organisations, will take part in a march past. They will be joined by an estimated 10,000 members of the public who will line Whitehall to watch the service.
Among those marching will be 100-year-old Second World War veterans and those who served in recent conflicts including in Afghanistan.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, 400 members of the South Atlantic Medal Association will march past the Cenotaph.
They will also be joined by bereaved family members, with the youngest marcher aged eight.
On Friday, an Armistice Day service in Edinburgh had to be moved at short notice due to poor weather.
The Legion Scotland service of Remembrance was meant to take place in Princes Street Gardens, but the city council made the decision at 10am to close the gardens because of high winds.
Legion Scotland said the event was moved to Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory, where a smaller service went ahead with veterans who worked in the factory and others from all around Scotland.
Legion Scotland national padre Reverend Karen Campbell led the service, and Edinburgh’s lord provost and others laid a wreath, with the service also streamed on Facebook.
