Parade in memory of war dead

AS A BRIGHT Barbados flag fluttered at half-mast on the Clock Tower of the historic Parliament Buildings, the island remembered its war dead in a sombre ceremony this morning.

With the chimes of the 1875 clock announcing 8 a.m. fading, a gun report, startling many in the crowd, began and ended two minutes of silence for those servicemen who lost their lives in World Wars I and II.

Then, continuing a decades old tradition, wreaths were laid at the foot of the Cenotaph War Memorial by Governor-General Sir Elliott Belgrave, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, Opposition Leader Mia Mottley, Acting Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith, Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force Colonel Alvin Quintyne and by members of overseas Diplomatic corps.

They were watched by scores of Barbadians and a few visitors who lined the temporary walkway alongside the Lewis/Wickham boardwalk, the boardwalk of the Inner Basin of the Careenage and the entrance to the Chamberlain Bridge.

The smartly attired Barbados Defence Force detachment in the Remembrance Day parade. 

A short religious service followed during which the audience promised “We will remember them”.

Then to cap the morning’s proceedings, the detachments of the Barbados Defence Force, displaying the precision for which they have become known, later joined the ex-service men of the Barbados Legion, the Royal Barbados Police Force, the Barbados Prison Service and others in a march past.  (HLE)

Members of the Royal Barbados Police Force making their way through Bridgetown in the Remembrance Day parade.