History of Remembrance Day

11:00am, 11 November - Lest we forget

At 11.00 am on 11 November, 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous war. In November the Germans called for an armistice (suspension of fighting) in order to secure a peace settlement. They then accepted the allied terms for unconditional surrender.

Australia was a small nation with a population of fewer than five million. From this small population base, no less than 416,809 men enlisted of which 302,000 served overseas. Of these, 62,000 were killed and 155,000 wounded. 

At least a further 8,000 died of war-related injuries after the war. These figures do not include the neurological trauma inflicted on so many soldiers, which negatively affected their lives and those of their families for many years afterwards.

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month attained special significance in the post-war years.

The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war.

The first modern world conflict had brought about the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between nine and thirteen million of them dead, perhaps as many as one-third of them with no known grave.

On the first Armistice Day, on 11 November, 1919, the two minutes silence was instituted as part of the main commemorative ceremony at the new Cenotaph in London. The silence was proposed by an Australian journalist working in Fleet Street, Edward Honey. At about the same time a South African Statesman made a similar proposal to the British Cabinet, which endorsed it. King George V personally requested all the people of the British Empire to suspend normal activities for two minutes on the hour of the Armistice ‘which stayed the world wide carnage of the four preceding years and marked the victory of Right and Freedom’. The two minutes silence was popularly adopted and it became a central feature of the commemorations of Armistice Day from then on.

In Australia on the 75th anniversary of Armistice, on 11 November, 1993, Armistice Day ceremonies again became the focus of national attention. On that day the remains of an unknown Australian soldier, exhumed from a First World War military cemetery in France, were ceremonially entombed in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Ceremonies were conducted simultaneously in towns and cities all over the country, culminating at the moment of burial at 11 am and coinciding with the traditional two minutes silence. This ceremony, which touched a chord across the Australian nation, re-established Remembrance Day as a significant day of commemoration.

In November, 1997 the Governor-General, Sir William Dean, issued a proclamation formally declaring 11 November as Remembrance Day and urging all Australians to observe at least one minutes silence at 11 am each year to remember those who died or suffered for Australia’s cause in all wars and armed conflicts.

Throughout Australia memorials of all sizes were established to commemorate the sacrifice of Australia’s sons. Most cities, towns and suburbs erected monuments.

In 1939 Australia was again involved in a world war. The tradition of Armistice Day continued, but its name was changed to Remembrance Day as it would now honour the dead of WWII and the later Australian military involvements in Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and the myriad peacekeeping operations throughout the world.