Traces the evolution of 'remembrance' from the Crimean War to the modern day, drawing on archived testimony and interviews with buglers, soldiers and public servants to show how the Last Post attained the status of a sacred anthem.
At eleven o'clock on the morning of 11 November 1919 the entire British Empire came to a halt to remember the dead of the Great War. During that first two-minute silence all transport stayed still, all work ceased and millions stood motionless in the streets. The only human sound to be heard was the desolate weeping of those overcome by grief. Then, at two minutes past eleven, the moment was brought to an end, by the playing of the Last Post. A century on, the Last Post - the infantry call played on bugle, rather the aristocratic sound of the cavalry trumpet - remains the most emotionally charged piece of music in British public life. In an increasingly secular country, it is the closest thing we have to a sacred anthem. Yet along with the poppy, the Cenotaph and the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, its power is profoundly modern. It is a response to the trauma of war that could only have evolved in a democratic age.
In this moving exploration of the Last Post's history, Alwyn W. Turner considers the bugle call's humble origins and shows how its mournful simplicity reached beyond class, beyond religion, beyond patriotism to speak directly to peoples around the world. Along the way he contemplates the relationship between history and remembrance, and seeks out the legacy of the First World War in today's culture.
