The Silence

[Subdeacon Joe]

Secrets of the silence revealed

 

 

 

Every year, the two minute’s silence for the Remembrance Service is

conducted with military precision. On Horse Guards Parade the King’s

Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire their WWI guns to mark the start of the

silence, and on Whitehall a Corps of Army Music Bugler from the

Household Division Band will mark its end at precisely the same time

that the guns fire again 120 seconds later.

 

How do they know the precise moment to start? Neither

can see the Big Ben clock from where they stand, and to react to the

first strike of the Big Ben Bell as it chimes the 11th hour would be a

moment too late.