Lothian prepares to remember war dead

Published on Friday 6 November 2009 10:07

HEARTS' remembrance day service will take place at Tynecastle after the club's landmark war memorial at Haymarket was moved to make way for tram works.

The service will be held in the Gorgie Stand on Sunday at 10:45am. A two-minute silence will follow at 11am and wreaths will be laid on a stage on the pitch.

Hearts' first team and backroom staff will attend the service, conducted by the Salvation Army, and gates will open at 10am.

A spokesman for the club said: "The club has been assured that the memorial will return to its home at Haymarket junction for the service in 2010."

Thousands of people across Edinburgh and the Lothians are expected to pay their respects to the soldiers who have lost their lives since World War One at a host of services on Sunday.

The main service in the Capital will take place at the Stone of Remembrance at the City Chambers at 10:45am, where wreaths will be laid by Lord Provost George Grubb, First Minister Alex Salmond, and Presiding Officer of Parliament Alex Fergusson, among others.

Prior to the remembrance service there will be a Royal British Legion Scotland parade consisting of 250 men and women, who will set off from St Giles Street at 10:40am.

Another service will follow in St Giles' Cathedral at 11:20am.

Lord Provost Grubb said: "Whether it's by attending a remembrance service or parade, or simply by taking a moment of quiet reflection, we can all show our gratitude and appreciation for the enormous sacrifices being made every day on our behalf by so many courageous men and women."

Other Royal British Legion Scotland remembrance services will be held at the Capital's St Mary's Church and the cenotaph at Roseberry Hall in South Queensferry at around 11am.

The RAF Spitfire remembrance day service will be held on the roadway in Jubilee Road, adjacent to the RAF Spitfire war memorial.

Around 70 boys and officers from 10th Leith Boys Brigade will march to South Leith Parish Church for a service at 11am.

More than 30 people are expected to take part in the 230 Transport Squadron RLC (V) annual Armistice Day parade and church service and the Kirkliston Parish Church.

Meanwhile, the Erskine Edinburgh Home in Gilmerton will commemorate remembrance day with a memorial service and wreath laying ceremony, which veterans will attend, on Wednesday at 10:20am.

Also on Armistice Day, members of the public are invited to gather at the Garden of Remembrance adjacent to the Scott Monument for a two-minute silence, marked by a gun firing from Edinburgh Castle.

In Midlothian wreath-laying and remembrance services will take place in Dalkeith, Roslin, Bonnyrigg, Loanhead, Newtongrange and Penicuik.

In West Lothian a remembrance ceremony will take place at the new war memorial at the Civic Centre in Livingston on Sunday at 10:30am, followed by a two-minute silence at 11am. In Linlithgow, Provost Tom Kerr will attend St Michael's Parish Church for a service at 10:50am.

In East Lothian remembrance day services will take place at St Michael's Kirk in Inveresk, Civic Square in Tranent, and North Berwick Abbey Church.