WOKING’S Remembrance Day event on Sunday began with a parade by people of many generations along Church Street East to Jubilee Square in the town centre.

Soldiers from Pirbright Army Training Centre marched with veterans, cadets, members of youth groups and civilians to take part in a ceremony around the borough’s war memorial.

At the front of the parade were members of the Surrey Army Cadet Force Corps of Drums, resplendent in their traditional red tunics.

Hundreds of people formed up around the square for a service led by recent Vicar of Christ Church, the Rev Peter Harwood, a two-minute silence at 11am and the laying of wreaths.

Those assembled were also addressed by the Mayor of Woking, Cllr Beryl Hunwicks, the Vicar of Old Woking, the Rev Jonathan Thomas – the moderator of Churches Together in Woking – and Imam Hafiz Hashmi, head imam at the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking.

The Exhortation was read by Eric Rice of the Royal British Legion and the Kohima Prayer by Mick Richings Royal Naval Association.

The event concluded with the mayor taking the salute as the parade left the square.

“I was absolutely delighted with the attendance, and I think that what came across to me strongly was the number of young people who were there from the various groups,” said Cllr Hunwicks after the ceremony.

“They were all really engaged with what was happening and had a real understanding about what remembrance is all about. It is good to see that children and young people are taking it seriously and that remembrance is being passed on to new generations.”

See the 14 November edition of the News & Mail for five pages of Remembrance Service tributes from around the area