MALCOLM MIME WRITES: Sunday was Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day as it is now more commonly referred to, and it isn’t any old Remembrance Day, this year is the 100th such day, and marks 100 years since the ending of the First World War, which occurred at 11am on Monday, November 11,1918.

At 11am on Sunday we all fell silent for two minutes in remembrance of all those who have died in conflict, and also those left behind…or did we? No doubt the vast majority of those aged 60-plus made a point of spending two minutes in silence, but in recent years fewer and fewer people are bothering to show their respects, particularly those under the age of 60. I have to admit, last year was the first time in many years that I bothered to observe the silence, and it wasn’t because I’d made a purposeful point of doing so, it was because everyone in Fratton Park was doing it en masse prior to kick off, and if I’m honest, I didn’t spend the two minutes* thinking of past war conflicts, I was contemplating who might score the first goal.

So why is it so many of us no longer bother with Remembrance Day? I believe there are two main reasons. The first reason is religion. Since the Second World War, we don’t just have Remembrance Day, but we have Remembrance Sunday as well, which is very much a church-run event. The original Armistice Day was a secular ceremony and, indeed, the Cenotaph in London was purposely not inscribed with any reference to God as not all the war dead were Christians, but ever since the Church got involved, Remembrance Sunday; which is always the second Sunday in November, pushed Remembrance Day itself into the background. The official laying of the wreaths at the Cenotaph happens on Remembrance Sunday and not Remembrance Day, and is followed by a Christian service. In the past, when the majority of the UK held an Anglican belief, this wasn’t a problem, but now that just 17 per cent of the country are Anglican, and 53 per cent have no faith at all, the religious-based Remembrance Sunday has become outdated. This year, for the first time ever, the non-religious group, Humanists UK, have been invited to attend the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, so perhaps the authorities are, at last, waking-up to the fact Remembrance Sunday should be as much a day for the vast non-Anglican masses as it is for the few.

Lack of interest in the religiously-embroiled Remembrance Sunday doesn’t excuse why I and others don’t pay our respects on Remembrance Day, where tradition dictates people stand in a public space and observe the two minutes’ silence at 11 am before continuing with their daily routine. The only reason I can give for not bothering, is because I haven’t suffered personal loss from a war. I have no one in particular to remember and so, therefore, I don’t have enough reason to make the effort. Yes, we owe a debt to those who died in the two world wars, but the last world war ended 73 years ago, so is too far away in history for the current generation to relate to — the two world wars are just as distant to the youth of today as the Battle of Trafalgar.

Perhaps it is time for the religious-based Remembrance Sunday to be confined to the Anglican churches and let Remembrance Day come back to the fore.

The National Service of Remembrance could be a non-religious service, held not on a Sunday, but at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, just as it was in the beginning.

*The silence at Fratton Park was actually for one minute and not two — as a wag in the pub said after the game, those in authority probably thought that Pompey fans couldn’t keep quiet for longer than 60 seconds, before adding, it would’ve been fine at Southampton, where the fans are quiet for 90 minutes.