First marked in 1919, remembrance day honours those who gave their lives in service, and over a century later, it continues to hold a unique meaning for everyone. Across Tyne and Wear, communities are coming together to pay their respects, from ceremonies in Newcastle to tributes in Sunderland.
00:00In Newcastle, thousands are expected to gather in the City Centre to mark Remembrance Sunday.
00:06A military parade and service of remembrance will be held as citizens prepare to pay its respect for all former and active servicemen and women.
00:14A parade will also take place in Sunderland at the War Memorial on Burden Road, which will be led by the Mayor.
00:21On top of this, landmarks including the Northern Spire, Bridge, Penshaw Monument, Hilton Castle, Fulwell Mill, Seaburn Lighthouse, Peel Square and High Street West will be illuminated red to mark Remembrance.
00:34But Remembrance means something different to everyone and Nigel Devine actually set out on a journey to France to find the grave of his great uncle who died in the First World War, not knowing what he would find and what would come from it.
00:46I was making my own trip across to the Somme in France to find the grave of my great uncle, Francis Devine, who left Wall's End and was killed in action in 1916.
01:00When I was on my way there, I stopped off in Brussels to see another of our family, Daniel Puglisi, who mentioned,
01:07is there any chance you could go and find the grave of his great uncle, same great uncle as Andrew's, John McGlynn.
01:17So I went off, took all day to find John's grave, but I actually found it two weeks later,
01:26I found him that Andrew, thinking he would know all about John McGlynn, and said,
01:30I found his great uncle's grave, showed him the picture.
01:35He wrote to his family whilst he was serving in the British Expeditioning Forces in 1918, France.
01:43It was a letter to his mother, which is my great grandmother, and also to his sisters.
01:50And he specifically mentioned his sister, Minnie, who was my grandmother.
01:56The letter was just a snoring letter home to his family.
02:01He mentioned that he thought the war was going to be over.
02:04He also mentioned that he thought the German people had had enough,
02:07so it was coming towards the end of the war, and everybody had had enough,
02:11and he was just wanting to get home.
02:13So that was on the 10th of September 1918,
02:19and the tragedy of the story is, on the 19th of September 1918,
02:26he was killed in action.
02:28So that has inspired this song that was written,
02:34No Rain For My Honey Bee.
02:36Well, it's about hope.
02:38The chorus is, you know, it's about No Rain For My Honey Bee, you know.
02:44And it's thinking about from a tragic situation that, you know,
02:50in this case where life has gone on and people have, you know,
02:54it's uplifting, I'm trying to say.
02:57That's what we're trying to get out of the song, you know.
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