News Company Updates
Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day: we will remember them
Today is Remembrance Sunday, and on Wednesday, 11 November, it is Armistice Day. Across the country, people will stop at 11am and stand in silence for two minutes to remember everyone who has served and died in conflict, from the First World War to the present day. At Quick Mortgages, we will be stopping with them.
Why 11am on the 11th
The Armistice that ended the fighting of the First World War was signed in the early hours of 11 November 1918, and the guns on the Western Front fell silent at 11am. A year later, King George V asked the nation to mark the moment with a silence, and the tradition has been kept ever since.
Remembrance Sunday, the second Sunday in November, is when the nation comes together at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and at war memorials in towns and villages across the UK. Armistice Day keeps the original date, wherever in the week it falls. This year they are just three days apart.
Why the poppy
Poppies were among the first flowers to grow again on the churned-up battlefields of Flanders and northern France. The Canadian doctor John McCrae wrote of them in his 1915 poem In Flanders Fields, and the red poppy has been worn in remembrance ever since. Wearing one also supports the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal, which helps serving personnel, veterans and their families all year round.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.— Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen (1914)
Why it matters to us
Our team includes veterans and military families, and the forces community is a big part of who we help. This year we were proud to receive the Armed Forces Covenant Silver Award, and Remembrance is a reminder of why that commitment matters.
On Wednesday at 11am our team will pause for the two-minute silence. If you happen to call us just then, please bear with us for a moment.
To everyone who has served, everyone serving now, and the families who serve alongside them: thank you. We will remember them.
Serving, or served?
We help serving personnel, veterans and their families with fee-free mortgage advice, with no obligation. Our guide to military mortgages is a good place to start.