PEOPLE across Ludlow and south Shropshire have been paying their respects to those who gave their lives in the service of their country.

There were ceremonies in Ludlow and in the other market towns and villages across the area.

It was a special weekend in that the eleventh of November fell on Saturday followed by the traditional Sunday services of Remembrance.

In Ludlow crowds gathered on Saturday to watch a ceremony at 11am and less than 24 hours later they were back to see the annual parade form up at the Castle and march through the town to St Laurence’s Church for a service followed by a laying of wreaths at the war memorial in the town centre.

The parade included representatives from the Royal British Legion and other forces organisations as well as representatives from the civilian services and uniformed organisations.

In addition to the placing of wreaths by dignitaries, members of the public were also able to pay their respects and remember at the memorial that includes the names of the 200 servicemen from Ludlow who died in the First and Second World wars as well as in the Korean War. The placing of the names on the paving stones around the memorial was made possible by the raising of £7,000 by the people of Ludlow.

The names were unveiled in July 2016 on the 100th anniversary of the day in which the first soldiers from Ludlow went into action in the Battle of the Somme.

Formal remembrance was not the only way in which people from Ludlow paid their respects and young people have also been involved.

Staff and students of Ludlow Church of England School joined with parents, ex-students and members of the community on Friday morning for a Centennial Tree Planting ceremony.

After the school’s traditional Remembrance assemblies, students joined with guests to plant an oak tree taken from the Polygon Wood, part of the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele.

This battle ended on November 10, 1917, 100 years to the day that this tree was planted for future generations to remember the courage and sacrifice of others.

The tree was donated by local historian, Clive Richardson, author of Till Ludlow Tower Should Fall, a history of Ludlow’s sacrifice in The Great War.

There were nearly 600,000 British and German casualties in the Battle of Passchendale with more than 4.5 million shells fired.