General News
13 November, 2025
Horsham honours the fallen on Remembrance Day
The community gathered on Tuesday at the Horsham War Memorial and Cenotaph to honour those who lost their lives in war with a Remembrance Day service.
Emcee David Ellis highlighted the day's significance, now in its 107th year, in the context of world history.
"On the 11am on the 11th of November 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent," he said.
"After more than four years of continuous warfare, the allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months.
"In November of that year, the Germans called for an armistice. In order to secure a peace settlement, they accepted allied terms that amounted to unconditional surrender."
The 11th Hour of the 11th day of the 11th month became an important date across Europe and the Commonwealth in post-war years, synonymous with the remembrance of those who had died in the war.
"This first modern world conflict had brought around the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between nine and 13 million dead, perhaps as many as one-third of them have no known grave," he said.
"The allied nations chose this day and time for the commemoration of their war dead on the anniversary of the armistice in 1919.
“Two minutes' silence was instituted as part of the main commemorative ceremony for the new cenotaph in London.”
Australian journalist Edward Honey proposed the silence.
Originally known as Armistice Day, November 11 was formally declared Remembrance Day in 1997 by Governor General Sir William Deane.
The service featured a poem reading by the captains of St Brigid's College, Wimmera Lutheran College and Horsham College, before dignitaries and community members laid wreaths at the Cenotaph.
The French and Australian national anthems followed a minute's silence.
