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FOR the first time since 1990, Remembrance Sunday coincided with Armistice Day and a two-minute silence was respectfully observed at 11am to mark the moment the guns fell silent at the end of the First World War.

In Haverhill, the parade assembled at the Lower Downs Slade car park and marched to the cemetery in Withersfield Road before proceeding to a service at St Mary's Church.

At Kedington the parade met at the Barnardiston Arms at 10.30am before marching on to the parish church at 10.40am.
After an Act of Remembrance naming local people killed in two world wars, the two minutes' silence was observed, followed by a service in the church.

However not all members of the community respected those who died.
BRITISH LEGION members at Haverhill were shocked to discover just hours after the Remembrance Day ceremony that wreaths had been stolen from the war memorial in the cemetery and wooden crosses removed from veterans graves.

On Sunday afternoon, close to 400 people attended the Remembrance Day wreath laying ceremony and young air cadets from the town placed a wooden cross om the grave of each veteran buried there.

But the following morning it was discovered that thieves had snatched at least two wreaths from the memorial and a number of wooden crosses as well as ransacking a number of the graves.

There are 43 veterans’ graves some of them from Poland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Brain Thomas, the British Legion member who organises Haverhill’s Poppy collection, said he was “absolutely sick” about the thefts and vandalism. He urged anyone who had seen anything or knew anything about it to contact the police.

“I am so sick I cannot believe people could do that. That men and women should support their country by fighting and giving their lives, then someone takes the crosses from their graves.

“Pinching is pinching, but this is the lowest of the low. It is our job to protect those graves and look after them for their families.

“The council had made a wonderful job of the cemetery and the parade gets bigger every year. This is just not on and I would ask anyone who knows something to go to the police,” Mr Thomas said.

Some of the wooden crosses had been thrown on the ground, but most had gone. In view of bogus poppy collectors being reported this year, Mr Thomas thought the crosses could have been stolen by someone planning to sell them next year.

Anyone who knows anything about the incident should contact Haverhill Police on (01284) 774100.