AROUND 100 people stood silently in the rain around Romsey's War Memorial on Armistice Day to remember the town's fallen.

Amongst those who gathered around the memorial for the service led by the Rev Tim Sledge were Romsey's mayor Peter Hurst and Test Valley's mayor Jan Lovell.

They were joined by the Rev Terry Hinks from the Abbey United Reformed Church, Royal British Legion officials, town and borough councillors, the town's county councillor Mark Cooper, Romsey Extra Parish Council Chairman Chris Wesson, children from Romsey Abbey Primary School and members of the public.

During the short ceremony Mr Sledge said it was important to remember everyone from the parish who died in war.

He singled out one Romsey soldier in particular.

“Romsey's first Great War fatality was Lieutenant Athelstan George of the 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment. During the Battle of the Marine, he suffered a fractured skull resulting from a gunshot wood to the head and died of his wounds on September 14 1914 aged 27 years,” said Mr Sledge prior to the two minute silence at 11am.

Royal British Legion standard bearers lowered their flags as Romsey Abbey clock chimed and the chairman of Romsey Royal British Legion, Stephen Horsley read Robert Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen, which contains the words 'They shall grow not old as we are left grow old'.

Borough councillor Ian Hibberd laid a wreath in memory of the town's fallen.

A gun was fired at the beginning and end of the two minutes silence by the Fort Cumberland and Portsmouth Militaria Society.