Remembrance Sunday: Shropshire shrugs off the wet and the cold to remember the fallen
People gathered in their hundreds in cold and pouring rain across Shropshire to remember the dead of two world wars and numerous other conflicts.
Like generations before them, residents and parade participants gathered in Shrewsbury's Quarry to stand in silence and to continue the pledge to remember the fallen and continue to hope for peace.
Representatives from military units, veterans' organisations including the Royal British Legion, community groups, Shrewsbury Town Council, and civic leaders including town mayor Councillor Becky Wall and local MP Daniel Kawczynski took part in a parade that snaked its way from Shrewsbury Castle to the Quarry in time for the silence at 11am.
A sea of umbrellas bobbed their way through the town centre past a large crowd of onlookers as they made their way for the solemn service and playing of The Last Post.
Bystanders had numerous reasons to be there, including proud Welshwoman Euryl Hoskins, 84, a Shrewsbury resident with her "heart in the Rhondda" who stood with a picture and poignant memories of her father Mark Stevens.
Mr Stevens had died at the age of 25 as the Second World War came to an end in 1945. He was killed in Italy and is buried in a cemetery in Rome.
"The news came through to us at home in a telegram on Victory in Europe Day as the world was celebrating the end of the war," she said. "I was only five but I remember my mother and grandmother sitting around the table crying.
"They said they weren't crying, but I knew they were."
Wearing her father's service medals, she added: "It is important for me to turn out here to remind people what men like my father did for us. They fought so we could have free speech, not that we have much of that any more."
