FIRST minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she is privileged to be able to lay a wreath in Edinburgh to mark Remembrance Sunday today.
She will lay the wreath at the Stone of Remembrance at Edinburgh City Chambers before giving a reading at the service at St Giles’ Cathedral.
“Remembrance Sunday is a chance for us all to pause and commemorate those who gave their lives during conflicts over the last century, as well as paying tribute to our veterans and people still serving in the armed forces,” she said.
“Eighty years on from the outbreak of the Second World War it is particularly important that we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.
“On behalf of the people of Scotland I am privileged to be able to lay a wreath today.”
The national remembrance parade begins at 10am at Edinburgh Castle and will make its way down to the city chambers where the Act of Remembrance and a wreath laying ceremony will take place, followed by the service in St Giles Cathedral.
In London, Ian Blackford, SNP candidate for Ross, Skye & Lochaber, will attend the Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph war memorial in Whitehall on behalf of the SNP and Plaid Cymru.
“It is now more than a centenary since the end of the First World War, and today we stand and remember the huge sacrifice of that conflict and others since then, committed to ensuring such terrible loss and suffering is never repeated,” he said.
“I am honoured to be able to attend the ceremony at the Cenotaph in London today, and to lay a wreath in remembrance of those sacrifices.”
“On this day, for them, we fall silent and remember.”
Hundreds of people, including Deputy First Minister John Swinney, are expected to gather in Glasgow’s George Square for a two minute silence at 11am. The Royal Regiment of Scotland and Glasgow Youth Choir will provide music.
Minister for Veterans Graeme Dey is attending the remembrance service on board HMS Unicorn in Dundee.
In Inverness, a parade will take place through the city centre in the afternoon followed by a remembrance and wreath-laying ceremony at the city’s war memorial.
A ceremony will be held in Aberdeen at the war memorial beginning at 10.50am before a service at St Nicholas Kirk at 11.30.
In Stirling a service will be held at the Church of the Holy Rude at 10.45am with the laying of wreaths taking place afterwards at the cenotaph.
The Lewis War Memorial has turned red for this year’s Poppy Scotland Light Up Red appeal, which is also being marked on the island by a projection of images of some of the islanders who made the ultimate sacrifice in World Wars One and Two.
Point and Sandwick Trust’s engineering consultant Tony Robson fitted red filters onto Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s existing floodlights at the War Memorial and arranged the slideshow projection, which is being shown on the side of the Old Knock School in Point, where the community wind farm charity’s offices are located. The school is also being partly lit by a red LED light.
The red lighting and the slideshow will be visible during the hours of darkness over the weekend.
They were launched on Friday and will be in place until tomorrow night, inclusive. However, if there is enough interest the slideshow could be left in place throughout the coming week.
Community wind farm charity Point and Sandwick Trust turned its Beinn Ghrideag turbines red for last year’s Light Up Red appeal but this year chose to light up the War Memorial, with all practical matters taken care of by engineering consultant Tony Robson.
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