YOUNG and old marched together for Sunday's Remembrance Day ceremonies as Wiltshire paid tribute to those who had lost their lives in war.

Marlborough saw one of its biggest parades for some years. It included nine standards led by the Royal British Legion branch standard carried by chairman Alec Light.

Former servicemen and women were joined by youth organisations including the Scouts and Cubs, Brownies, Army and air cadets.

Captain Tony Rix from HMS Marlborough joined the parade with three of his crew from the ship, which is currently at her home base in Portsmouth.

The 11am silence was observed in St Mary's Church where the parade had marched from the High Street led by the Phoenix Brass.

Afterwards the parade re-formed to march to the war memorial where the haunting sound of Last Post was played by Phoenix principal cornet player, Anthony 'Tug' Palmer.

In a new departure for the Marlborough remembrance, a lone piper played as mayor Maurice Cooper laid the first wreath. Harry Scott-Dempster, from Marlborough College combined cadet force, played a lament before he and four other pipers played traditional airs for the rest of the wreath laying.

About 200 people took part in a Remembrance service at Malmesbury Abbey on Sunday. The congregation included the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Sir Maurice Johnson, North Wiltshire MP James Gray, representatives from Hullavington's 9 Supply Regiment and about 60 townspeople who served in the Second World War and Korea.

Mayor Catherine Doody led a procession of Malmesbury town councillors and members of the Old Corporation to the abbey to attend the service.

Earlier on Sunday the Legion held a short service at Malmesbury's Rembrance Gates, in the Lower High Street.

Devizes MP Michael Ancram read the lesson and Lady Ruth Hawley, lay canon of Salisbury Cathedral, gave the sermon at the Remembrance Sunday service at St John's Church, Devizes.

Earlier contingents from the Royal British Legion, the Army Cadet Force, the Air Training Corps, Scouts, Guides, Wiltshire Fire Brigade and the Royal Air Force Association marched through the town to the church.

After the service, there was the laying of wreaths at the war memorial before the salute was taken by mayor Tim Price, Tom Wheeler, president of the Devizes branch of the Royal British Legion, and Major General Robin Grist, regimental colonel of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment.

The Mayor of Chippenham Coun Sandie Webb joined fellow town councillors at the Service of Remembrance in St Andrew's Church on Sunday.

"When we came out of the church we saw hundreds of Chippenham people gathered together at the cenotaph - it was staggering," she said. "During the silence you could have heard a pin drop."

The Royal British Legion along with representatives from armed forces groups joined the parade to the church and later placed wreaths of poppies on the war memorial in Market Place.

At Corsham, a service was held at St Bartholomew's Church followed by a parade through the High Street. At the war memorial near Lacock Road, old soldiers, service personnel from the Basil Hill Barracks and scores of townspople stood in silence.

In Calne, 19-year-old Lisa Carr, an associate member of the Royal British Legion, read the poem In Flanders Field at the town's ceremony of remembrance on Sunday. Her words rang out at the war memorial at St Mary's Church, where 107 names of those who fell in both world wars are recorded.

The parade from the Green to the church was attended by more than 200 people, with representatives from the Royal British Legion, the Royal Navy Association, the Royal Air Force Association, the Lions, Guides, Cub Scouts and Brownies, as well as schoolchildren.

The Brownies won the Millennium Cup for the best turned out and most well disciplined group in the parade.

On Sunday afternoon, Wroughton Silver Band led a long column of marchers through Wootton Bassett for the Royal British Legion's Remembrance service and wreath-laying ceremony in St Bartholomew and All Saints Church.

The Union flag and 15 standards were presented at the altar, where Legion branch president George Richardson read the names of 71 Wootton Bassett men who were killed in two world wars.

After the service the parade returned to The Lawns where the salute was taken by Wing Commander Hobson.

On Saturday, towns and villagers came to a halt at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to mark Armistice Day.

In Marlborough shoppers and traffic stopped as an air raid siren signalled the start of the two minutes' silence.

It was a scene repeated in Chippenham and in Wootton Bassett, where RBL standards were paraded for a service outside the Post Office.