Island falls silent for Remembrance commemorations

Communities across the Isle of Man have gathered to pay their respects for Armistice Day.

Commemorations took place in villages and towns, many marking the two-minute silence with a gathering at the local war memorial.

In the capital, Douglas, Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer led the wreath laying on Harris Promenade, where 80-year-old David Lace was among the crowd.

Laying a wooden cross at the monument to remember his grandfather, father and uncles, he said: "I feel like it should never be forgotten. It must have been absolutely terrible for them, in those years."

He continued: "I think they all should be remembered, everything to do with the fallen.

"People who lost their lives should never be forgotten, it's as simple as that."

He said although conscription had been abolished by the time he grew up, his father had encouraged him and his brother to join the Royal Artillery Association in support of those who served.

"I was 20 then so that's 60 years, and all I can say is I've enjoyed every minute of it, I'd do it again," he said.

Brig Norman Butler, who had a 37-year career in the British Army serving in countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Aden, France and Germany, was also there to pay his respects.

The 97-year-old said the commemorations remained a significant annual event.

"It is important, for respect for those who went before, some of whom are personal to me," he said, adding: "I lost two grandfathers in the first world war, so that matters to me."

"War is such an awful thing, and yet what is extraordinary having been there, is the way in which human beings can act within those terrible conditions.

"One can only be impressed by the memory of those people."

"Buried in me is the memory of people that I've actually served with who died.

"One who died beside me, I didn't even know his name, he was just beside me, and he's there in my mind."

Reflecting on what goes through his mind during the commemorations, Butler said different people come to mind, and they were not always those who had died in action.

"At the moment of the silence, people come into my mind," he said, with the 2026 ceremony bringing back a memory of an uncle who was a long-serving Navy man and had been involved in multiple trips on a minesweeper at Dunkirk.

"I was staying with his wife when he arrived back [from the war] and I answered the door, and his hair had gone grey and he was barely awake," he said.

"I opened the door and he walked straight past me and up the stairs and didn't reappear for six hours.

"That was just one memory, and that was there today."

Stressing the importance of the Acts of Remembrance, he said: "It's important that we remember, not only for the human beings that we're remembering that didn't last, but also for the lessons that we ought to be learning but don't seem to be."

Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.