SILENCE spoke volumes as thousands of people in Oxfordshire paused to remember Britain’s war dead yesterday.

Two minutes of silence were held at 11am as part of commemorations of Armistice Day, marking the moment the guns fell silent in France and Belgium on November 11, 1918, at the end of the First World War .

At Church Cowley St James School, in Bartholomew Road, Oxford, pupils stood in silence in the playground before deputy headteacher and former Army sergeant Jason Clarke played the Last Post.

Mr Clarke, who served with the Royal Green Jackets for 13 years, said: “We wanted the children to spend a few minutes thinking about what we have been talking about this week.

“They now understand that war is never the final solution and that there are wars going on all the time. It’s not just about the First and Second World Wars.”

In Oxford city centre, a solemn silence fell over the normally bustling Westgate Shopping Centre, as shoppers and staff stood motionless and bowed their heads in respect.

Rosamund Maibach, of Wilcote Road, Headington, was shopping in Sainsbury’s supermarket and paused to remember the dead.

The 85-year-old said: “I observed the silence because it’s my father’s birthday and he was in the war. He died 10 years after the war ended from shrapnel in his lungs.

“I think it’s important that everyone observes it. I do even if I am at home.”

Audrey Howes, 75, from Wallingford, was shopping with her daughter Lucie, 43, from Warborough. She said: “Everyone in the shop stopped and it gave me goose pimples. Just get the troops home – what are they doing out there? It brings tears to your eyes.”

Shopper Mauricio Rodriguez, 40, of Leiden Road, Wood Farm, said: “The silence made me very emotional. I’m very sorry about it all.”

At Oxford Crematorium, in Barton, about 40 Royal British Legion members paid silent tribute to fallen comrades.

Branch standards were raised beside a special memorial garden which was founded 15 years ago as a final resting place for legion members.

Headington RBL branch chairman Terry Cox said: “Not a lot of people realise it’s here but this year, and from now on, we will be paying our respects at 3pm every November 11. It has been a great turnout today.”

In Witney singer Linda Watts, star of BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night, performed popular wartime songs at a remembrance event at the Elms Day Centre.

Mandy Bishop, a co-ordinator at the day centre for the elderly, said: “They were all singing along and waving their arms.

“It did set a few of them off and they got a bit tearful.”

In the town centre, members of Witney Royal British Legion gathered at the war memorial in Church Green to mark the silence.

In Abingdon, 200 people marked the moment around the war memorial.

A similar event was held at Didcot’s war memorial, in Britwell Road.

In Launton, near Bicester, former soldiers held a short service at the war memorial and the names of local war dead were read out.

eallen@oxfordmail.co.uk