On the previous evening, a Festival of Remembrance takes place at The Royal Albert Hall where the climax of the evening comes when one million poppies made by disabled veterans.

The Cenotaph was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens as part of the Peace Celebrations which took place on the June 28th 1919. Troops of the victorious armies, French, Belgian and American together with the British army marched down Whitehall, past The Cenotaph and then up the Mall to be reviewed by the King from a temporary dais outside Buckingham Palace.

The structures including The Cenotaph were made of wood and plaster and were planned to be temporary. Their construction was achieved within a few weeks and the plan was to remove them, however the simple Cenotaph caught the imagination of the man-in-the-street and quickly gained approval as a suitable focus for the nation’s remembrance. Men doffed their hats to it (remember in the 1920’s and 30’s everybody wore a hat!) as they passed it. Bus and taxi drivers who passed it many times a day would do so each time. Although there were plans in the works to ensure that war memorials were constructed in most towns and villages together with the foundation of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in France and elsewhere, along with the placing of the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, The Cenotaph became the centre of the nation’s commemoration of the war dead.