Armistice Day 1918-2018

Some 10 million soldiers were killed in ‘The Great War’ before the guns finally fell silent on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918. The Armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany in a railway carriage in the forests of Compiègne in France, agreeing to the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front and effectively ending the First World War. It took effect at eleven o’clock that morning —the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”.

Armistice Day is remembered in countries around world. In Britain a two-minute silence is observed to remember and honour the sacrifices made. Many people wear a poppy as a symbol of remembrance and hope inspired by the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, written by Canadian Doctor Colonel John McCrae in the spring of 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres. The bright red poppy is a resilient flower which continued to grow in landscapes otherwise devastated by war. In the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, Remembrance Sunday takes place on the second Sunday in November nearest to 11 November.

2018 will mark 100 years since the armistice was signed. The Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and Winner of Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, Imtiaz Dharker, are supporting the University of Lincoln in launching a poetry competition for schools in 2017/18 to commemorate the centenary of Armistice Day.

The competition judges will select will select the best poems submitted by UK school pupils and college students to feature in a special anthology, ‘Armistice 100’. It will be published on 11 November 2018 with a foreword by Carol Ann Duffy.

Year 9: GET WRITING! We can’t wait to see your entries.

Please use the link to find instructions on how to submit your entry.