A number of participants have reflected on the way in which their thoughts turn to the First World War while observing the Two Minute Silence.

A number of participants have reflected on the way their thoughts turn to the Second World War while observing the Two Minute Silence. They think about family members who fought during that war, the people they left behind, and their own experiences as children or young people living in wartime Britain.

A number of participants have reflected on the way their thoughts turn to ongoing conflicts or those within the recent past, expressing the importance of remembering that war is not only an event of the past. 

Students at Almondbury High School have been working with us on the subject of conflict and peace, and the meaning of the two-minute silence. Some of the students belong to a project called Bridge the Gap, which brings them into contact with a group of older people from the Huddersfield Deanery Project. They meet together once a week for various activities, which might include shopping, quizzes, or chatting over a cup of tea. During these get-togethers, the students have started interviewing their visitors about their war-time experiences, and their thoughts about war and peace. And they've been joined by some of those taking history as a GCSE subject. One of the interviews - with Mrs Maureen Wood - is already on this website, and we're hoping it will soon be joined by others. Because they took place in the sports building of the school, there's a fair bit of external noise - doors opening and closing, people doing PE next door, calling out to each other as they get ready to go home - but, there, that's school life for you, isn't it!

We have also been working with Year 6 pupils at Spring Grove junior school  to find out what they think about war and peace.

They came up with questions they wanted to ask about - 'How would you describe peace?', 'Why are poppies so special?', 'Does peace matter?' - and then they asked each other some of these questions, in small groups. They gave very interesting and thoughtful replies, which are transcribed in these pages. We hope you will be able to hear them in due course, as well.

 These young people have also used their experience to write poems about the themes of war and peace. Visit the gallery to see the results.

The two minutes are filled initially only with thoughts of my father… a brave, highly disciplined soldier who served with, fought in Burma with, and cared for the welfare of Gurkhas throughout his life. 

I remember the only time he dropped his guard and broke down in tears. It was a moment of great pain as he answered my questions on fighting in the jungle. I knew the subject was taboo but I had been an inquiring student and the horror of recalling one-to-one fighting [face to face] was too shocking a task for this wonderful man. I was gently asked never to bring up the subject again.

The two minute silence is the start of a highly emotional period as I continue to remember the Remembrance services and the parades to which I accompanied my father...the haunting sound of the bugle, the canon fire.... he stood erect and silent, a broad bar of medals resting against his chest... but he never spoke of medals.  

I learnt young that soldiers who saw such horrors and felt the terror of fighting in blackness, on foot, do not speak of the experience but bury it deep in the subconscious in order to allow some semblance of normal life after war... one learns so much from what is not said. 

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share these private thoughts. It is both extremely painful yet cathartic to have done so.I would have loved to have been mature or confident enough to have thanked him, while he was here, to thank him for my freedom which so many more brave women and men continue to do for us today. I am very grateful to all those who serve in the forces now to help keep our world safe  

The Centre for Oral History Research was invited to run an interview techniques training session at Imperial War Museum North, Manchester in February 2009.  Stephen Kelly met with a group of teenagers who were working towards buidling an exhibition about their views on the legacies of war.

As a part of the training Steve interviewed a number of the participants to find out about their views on the silence and remembrance.

The wars that we commemorate with Remembrance Day and the Two Minutes Silence affected vastly more people than just in Britain or even Europe. Their effects were felt throughout the world.  Because of the wide-ranging consequences of these and more recent wars, many countries now feel the need as we do to commemorate their war dead, and the most common way for a country to do this is through a remembrance day.  Many countries now have Remembrance Days, some commemorating the two World Wars, some held on November 11^th, some using moments of silence, and others remembering regional conflicts in various ways.  All, however, have the same aim:  to give the living a chance to remember their dead, and think about how their sacrifice affected our lives.