This holiday weekend and more particularly this Sunday (11), is held each year to remember all those brave souls who fought for us in the two World Wars. Many lost their lives.

This year is particularly important as it marks 100 years of the agreement between the Allies and Germany on November 11, 1918, to stop fighting which marked victory for the Allies and defeat for Germany. This day was originally called Armistice Day.

It was signed in Compiegne in Northern France and came into effect at 11am.

The armistice forced the Germans to evacuate invaded countries and territories within two weeks.

They also had to surrender a significant amount of war material, including five thousand guns, 25,000 machine guns, and 1,700 planes.

Germany, exhausted by war and with a nation of hungry citizens, reluctantly accepted the terms.

Although hostilities continued in some areas, the armistice essentially brought an end to fours years of fighting in the First World War.

Our ceremonies here on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac are similar to the one held in London at the Whitehall cenotaph.

At precisely 11am we have a two minute silence. This silence is meant to be time for people to remember those who lost their lives fighting for their country. Despite the Cayman Islands being a small country, many from here signed up and joined our UK comrades.

According to reports, in a letter published in the London Evening News on 8 May 1919, an Australian journalist, Edward George Honey, had proposed a respectful silence to remember those who had given their lives in the First World War.

This was brought to the attention of King George V and on 7 November 1919, the King issued a proclamation which called for a two-minute silence.

Poppies are then laid on and by a cenotaph. Poppies are also worn by the public commencing around four weeks before Remembrance Sunday.

The reason poppies are used is because they are the flowers which grew on the battlefields after the First World War ended.

Poppies are also used to raise money for servicemen and women who are still alive but whose lives have been changed by war.

The charity that runs the Poppy Appeal is called The Royal British Legion.

In London Members of the Royal Family and the Government attend the service alongside representatives from the Armed Forces and the public. Here in Cayman the Governor executes this duty on behalf of the Royal Family.

Sadly, I have noticed the onlookers to the service we hold on Grand Cayman, at the cenotaph in front of Elmslie Memorial Church, becoming less in numbers.

I think it is largely due that the reason for remembering the two wars and the loss of life is not being spelled out to our children.

Are they told that 77 million people died because of those two wars? 77 million broken homes. Or do the young people there think of nothing?

I would hope that the backgrounds to WWI and WWII are common knowledge. That people know, at least vaguely, what happened out in the fields of Europe. What happened in the Cabinet Rooms underneath London, in bunkers underneath Berlin. But do they?

We should all learn that all that suffering the people involved in those wars would always be remembered. Remembered so it wouldn’t happen again?

Remember, first and foremost. The only way to move on and improve from the past is to learn from it – to look it squarely in the face and see the mistakes.

We must not allow all this pomp and ceremony, the Last Post, the Cenotaph, the two minutes’ silence: become meaningless.

During that two minutes silence don’t let us have a blank mind. Let it fill up with emotion. Even if you can’t envisage the loss, you can feel it.

Serena Smith in an article she wrote two years ago on The Tab website makes the claim that Remembrance Day has lost its meaning? Is she right?

She, however, leaves this concluding paragraph:

“Acknowledge that you can’t even comprehend the horror of it all, that you can’t even begin to mourn for all that death. Remind yourself of the failings of the human race and understand what it means to say “never again”. Remind yourself so that you can remind others. So that future generations will understand – will remember – the meaning of “never again”.

Well said. That’s why we remember THEM on Remembrance Sunday.