THROUGHOUT the county, silence fell once again last Sunday as the annual services of remembrance were held to honour the memory of those who have given their lives in defence of their country.

It was 87 years ago, on November 7, 1919, that King George V issued a proclamation calling for a two-minute silence: "All locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead."

The number of veterans of the Second World War becomes smaller with every passing year and those whose war Remembrance Day originally commemorated have all but gone - in 2005 there were only 11 surviving veterans of the Great War.

But with conflicts continuing to rage around the world, veterans of earlier wars are now joined by those who have fought in today's battles. Sunday itself saw four service personnel killed and three seriously injured in Iraq when their patrol boat was attacked on the Shatt al-Arab in Basra.

This year, as every year, the two-minute silence was observed in ceremonies in every town and village, by young and old alike.

In Ross-on-Wye, the Chelsea Pensioners evacuated to the town were remembered as they always are.

One person for whom this year's Remembrance Day parade had particular poignancy was Jill Turner, the great-niece of Jack Wall, who lived at Bockleton and was one of 305 soldiers executed for cowardice or desertion in the Great War and pardoned earlier in the year.

Jill was at the Cenotaph parade as she has been in previous years: "There were tears," she says. "But this year there was laughter as well."

There was little respect evident, however, in the actions of a thief who stole the British Legion Poppy collecting tin from the Old Stables Fish and Chip shop in Ewyas Harold.

The box was later recovered in a hedgerow about a mile away, but there was no sign of the money.

"It was an absolutely despicable crime," said Tony Hounsome, a representative of the local British Legion.