People across the UK have observed a two-minute silence at 11am on Wednesday, November 11, to remember those who lost their lives in the two World Wars. The moment marked the 108th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice that ended WW1. Businesses, schools and broadcasts paused in reflection and remembrance for those who died in the line of duty. Meanwhile, communities, councils and churches gathered at memorials and cenotaphs to lay wreaths and pay their respects.
Using data from Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Daily Express has created an interactive tool that allows you to search the full records of casualties from the First and Second World Wars. The archive provides a poignant insight into the family histories of people across the country.
Among the records in the database is a Private Edmund Burke, from Liverpool, who is buried at Cologne Southern Cemetery. Pte Burke’s, the great-grandfather of Andy Burnham, was being held as a Prisoner of War by the German Army and died aged 34 in captivity just two weeks before the war ended on 11th November 1918.
In the national events on Wednesday, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord Speaker Lord Forsyth are laying wreaths at the Angel Memorial for Armistice Day at the Angel Memorial.
Meanwhile, the Western Front Association is marking the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme at the Cenotaph in London. An Armistice Day service is also being held at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire.
You can search using any combination of first name or initial, surname, street, or town/city. There’s no need to fill in all the boxes – fill as many or as few as you wish.
WW1 started on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
It marked exactly one month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip.
The war, which lasted over four years, saw more than 16 million people lose their lives. According to the phrase first coined by the British author HG Wells, it was supposed to be “the war that will end war”.
However, peace was shattered by Nazi Germany when WW2 broke out in 1939.
Britain declared war following Adolf Hitler’s army invasion of Poland.
The conflict turned out to be the deadliest in history, resulting in deaths estimated to be between 60 million and 85 million.
It involved almost every major nation and ended with the defeat of Germany.
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