Mail Column  

Tomorrow is the 11th November, the eleventh day of the eleven month and – for this year – the eleventh year of the century. We won’t see the date 11/11/11 again. Of course, this date has significance and emotion far beyond the fact that this year there is a curiosity of all the elevens. We remember the brave men and women and pay tribute to their ultimate sacrifice fighting for our country. The 11th November is used because, on that date in 1918, the First World War came to an end when the Armistice was signed. Just a year later, Armistice Day, as Remembrance Day used to be called, was commemorated to recall the end of hostilities. At the time, the reigning King, George V, took the unusual step of writing to a newspaper, The Times, and expressed his wish for a two minute silence. The King stated, in what I think is a rather beautiful phrase, that: “All locomotion should...