THIS year’s Remembrance service and parade in St Giles will lead Armistice commemorations around the county.

Residents and visitors of all faiths will join Lord Mayor Colin Cook to mark the centenary of Armistice Day at the Remembrance service on Sunday, at the war memorial between 10am and 11.30am.

He will be joined by military units, uniformed organisations, community groups and civic dignitaries from across the county.

Troops from around Oxfordshire will gather from 10am at the junction of Beaumont Street and St Giles, then march up St Giles followed by the civic procession that will depart from St John’s College at 10.30am. The service will start at 10.40am.

Mr Cook said: “While we observe Remembrance Sunday every year, this year holds a greater significance as it marks 100 years since the end of the First World War, the war that was meant to end all wars.

“This year I am really glad that we are joined by representatives from our twin cities of Leiden, Bonn, Grenoble, Perm, our new twin Wroclaw in Poland, and our new friendship link with Padua in Italy taking part in this Service of Remembrance.

“The pursuit of peace is constant, and we must continue to come together as a city and as a country to work for a more peaceful future for all.”

The service will be led by the interim City Rector and daughter of running legend Sir Roger Bannister, The Rev Charlotte Bannister-Parker.

Oxford Society of Change Ringers will ring the bells from Carfax Tower at 12.30pm to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice, which signalled the end of the First World War. The traditional quarter peal will be rung at 5.30pm.

A Turning the Pages ceremony, in which names of fallen soldiers from both world wars will be read out, will take place as part of Evensong at Christ Church on Sunday.

In Abingdon on Saturday there will be a bun-throwing ceremony at 2pm, with the Act of Remembrance service taking place at the war memorial on Sunday at 11am, following a service in St Helen’s Church at 10am.

In Didcot, the Remembrance Sunday procession starts at Edinburgh Drive at 2.30pm before heading to the town’s war memorial.

In Wantage, the service will take place at 11am on Sunday at St Peter and St Paul Church.

In Wallingford the service takes place on Sunday in the Market Place from 10.45am and there will be a flypast of helicopters from RAF Benson.

In Witney on Sunday, from about 10.40am, there will be a parade and service at the war memorial on Church Green and a service afterwards at St Mary’s Church.

In Bicester the service will take place at St Edburg’s Church at 11am, with wreaths laid at the war memorial.