'The nation stops': Garrison Sgt Major Vern Stokes on the power of Remembrance

Add Festival of Remembrance 2026 and Remembrance Sunday: The Cenotaph to your watchlist

I could never have imagined, when I left school at 16 without qualifications, that one day I’d be at the heart of state events, from the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II to the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day.

I have a job where I pinch myself daily. Serving in the Coldstream Guards as the Garrison Sergeant Major of the London District, I plan and deliver the military aspects of state ceremonial occasions. That has included the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the Coronation of King Charles.

I’ve met incredible people and worked in incredible places. One of the greatest privileges is working on the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance and the Cenotaph Parade. It’s my 11th year as military director for the events at Remembrance Weekend.

At the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, I’m always wrestling with my emotions. I get close to the bereaved families and those who carry the Book of Remembrance. I get to know the Chelsea Pensioners and the wonderful young soldiers, sailors, and aviators who I train and brief, explaining the importance of what we will deliver on the arena floor.

This year, we’re marking the Gulf War, Bosnia and the Iraq War at the Royal Albert Hall and so I’ll also reflect on my personal experience in two of those conflicts. As a young soldier in Bosnia, trying to keep the peace was challenging and we were targets by default. In Iraq, I served as a Company Sergeant Major of Number One Company 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards in Al Amara, where Guardsman Wakefield was killed on night patrol very early on in the tour.

While the Festival of Remembrance changes each year, the Cenotaph Parade, which is 107 years old, uses the same blueprint as it has for generations, including the prayers, the chimes of Big Ben and the wonderful music.

It is the one time service personnel feel really valued by the country

I brief the military component and do a full rehearsal with around 600 military personnel – the soldiers, sailors and aviators who you see in the parade. I go to Number 10 to brief the Prime Minister and then the other political leaders either in my office at Horse Guards or at Wellington Barracks. I
also rehearse the Royal British Legion wreath layers – as well as ambassadors and high commissioners.

Whether you are in the service or watching on a big screen in Whitehall where the parade marches past later, it feels personal. People pay their respects to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice but also remember their own service.

I look into the faces of everyone who marches past the Cenotaph and see a different story in each one. It’s a deeply powerful experience. Our state ceremonial activity and pageantry is renowned. I think our allies and perhaps even our enemies look at what we deliver with some envy.

Remembrance is about remembering the past. But it’s also about thanking families because being a serviceman or servicewoman is not a lone appointment. Our families are the ones who suffer the missed birthdays and the empty seat at the dinner table.

The Festival of Remembrance brings that to life beautifully. It puts that sacrifice into the living rooms of the public, just like it did for me as a child in Telford, Shropshire, when I sat down to watch on television with my mum.

Remembrance Weekend is that one opportunity where service personnel feel really valued by the country, because at “eleven-hundred hours” on the Sunday, when the clocks chime, it doesn’t matter if it’s Big Ben or your local clock from the church in your village – the nation stops.

And for those few minutes, the nation remembers those people and the people who support them, being grateful to the wonderful men and women who are prepared to pay the ultimate sacrifice to defend our values and our country.