Starting from Clifford’s Tower at 10.20am, members of the city’s civic party and city council joined ex-service personnel to pay their respects.
Forces and service personnel gathered at Clifford’s Tower (Image: Harry Booth)
The ceremony began at the City War Memorial with renditions of ‘Ode to the Fallen’ and the ‘Last Post’, followed by a gun salute at 11am.
Wreaths were then laid by HM’s Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire, Mrs Johanna Ropner, and the Lord Mayor of York.
The Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Margaret Wells, said: “Remembrance Sunday is a solemn and significant day in the life of our city.
“It’s when we come together to pay our respects and honour all who serve, all who have served and, most especially, to those who have given their lives in service of their country. It is an honour to be part of this act of remembrance.”
Ahead of hosting the remembrance service at York Minster, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, added: “Remembering is complicated.
“Especially if what you are remembering are things that happened to other people and affect you only indirectly or, actually, very directly, but in ways so basic you take them for granted.
“And memory is fickle. Ten people can experience the same thing and five minutes later give ten different accounts of what happened.
“Eye witness accounts depend on whose eye and from what perspective.
“First, we are remembering those whose lives were lost in the tragedy of warfare but also in the pursuit of those freedoms we should avoid taking for granted because even the freedoms and securities that come with a democracy can easily fall apart if we don’t agree together on how we should conduct our affairs.
“Secondly, therefore, we are remembering and seeking to guard ourselves against the terrible human failings, not least the failure to acknowledge the reality of someone else’s perspective, that leads to conflict and warfare.
“Thirdly, we are also uniting ourselves, one with another, in an act of common purpose and solidarity to say that we want a world where common decency, courtesy and the common values of seeking the common good and acknowledging the value of every person are what we live for, and, if necessary – though we hope against hope that this may never happen again and only ever as a very last resort when all else fails, worth dying for.
“Fourthly, today is not the first day of the rest of my life. That was always yesterday. I need to remember the past in order to learn from it. In order not to repeat its mistakes. In order to say sorry where I have to. In order to forgive.”
