The United Kingdom will fall silent at 11am today, Wednesday 11 November, to mark Armistice Day, 108 years after the guns fell silent on the Western Front at the end of the First World War.

People across the country are being invited to pause for the national two-minute silence at 11am, the exact time and date that formal hostilities ended in 1918, to remember those who lost their lives in conflict and to honour those who continue to serve.

National service in Staffordshire

This year's national act of remembrance is being led from Staffordshire. The Royal British Legion's National Remembrance Gardens in Alrewas is holding an Armistice Day service on the Armed Forces Memorial, which the Legion says will lead the nation in marking the day.

The ticketed Act of Remembrance includes the national two-minute silence at 11am, followed by music, poetry, readings and personal reflections on different experiences of service and sacrifice. Dignitaries are attending alongside veterans, serving personnel, bereaved families, civic and military representatives and members of the public.

The service is being led by Squadron Leader Mandeep Kaur MBE, the RAF Sikh Chaplain to the British Armed Forces. She is joined by the Reverend Clare Callanan, a retired Army chaplain and Chaplain to the Afghanistan Veterans Community. The Band of the Coldstream Guards is taking part, along with participants from the Gardens' Talent in the Ranks programme, which uses poetry, songwriting and music to engage serving personnel, veterans and military families.

The National Remembrance Gardens, on Croxall Road in Alrewas, opened to ticket holders and members of the public from 9am. People without tickets for the service can take part from Heroes' Square, where proceedings are being shown on a large screen.

Remembrance is a living promise

In her welcome in the order of service, Royal British Legion National Chair Lynda Atkins pointed to the anniversaries that have followed the end of the First World War. This year marks 15 years since the end of Operation TELIC in Iraq. Next year will mark 45 years since the end of the Falklands conflict and 20 years since the end of Operation Banner in Northern Ireland.

She said: "These anniversaries remind us that Remembrance is not only about the past. It is a living promise to honour those who served, and those who continue to serve today."

Services across the country

Services are also being held in towns and cities across the UK. In Lincoln, the city council is holding its annual Remembrance Service on Armistice Day itself for the first time, in conjunction with the Royal British Legion, at the Lincoln War Memorial on the High Street from around 10.15am.

A civic procession led by the Town Crier left the Guildhall at 10.40am and travelled down the High Street to the War Memorial, including the Mayor of Lincoln and Civic Party, councillors, civic representatives and military representatives. The service is being conducted by Reverend Steven Holt, with wreaths laid at the War Memorial and standard bearers from the Royal British Legion in attendance.

Kate Fenn, Civic and International Partnerships Manager at City of Lincoln Council, said holding the service on Remembrance Day itself "allows our city to come together at the moment the nation pauses to remember and reflect those who served in the Armed Forces for our country".

Why 11 November matters

The Armistice was signed at 5am on 11 November 1918 in a railway carriage in Compiegne Forest in France. Hostilities on the Western Front formally came to an end six hours later, at 11am, and the date has been marked ever since.

On Armistice Day, a bugle call known as the Last Post is usually played at 11am, followed by two minutes of silence in which people remember those who have died. The silence is ended by the Reveille, another bugle call originally used to wake sleeping soldiers.

This year, Armistice Day falls after Remembrance Sunday, which was held on 8 November, meaning many local authorities held their formal remembrance services on Sunday. Today's commemorations give communities a second chance to gather at their war memorials at the exact hour the First World War ended.