One war veteran wiped a tear from his eye as the words "we will remember them" echoed from the speakers on Preston's cenotaph and hundreds stood in silent memory.

Those too young to remember the horrors of the Second World War and fresh from current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq stood alongside the proud veterans, with even younger cadets, perhaps the forces of the future, also there to remember.

But, it was the crowds who lined the streets on Cheapside, Birley Street and Lancaster Road which completed the moment; young and old all displaying remembrance poppies all stood to show those who fell in the First World War 90 years ago and the Second World War more than 60 years ago will indeed be remembered.

Bill Poulton, 84, of Fulwood, Preston, told a heart-warming story of how his six-year-old grandson had thanked him on Remembrance Sunday morning.

He smiled: "He looked over at me at breakfast and said 'Grandad, thanks for going to war for me', and I think he's probably the only person under 50 who's ever said that to me.

"But, you look out here and there's a lot of young faces in the crowd which is great to see."

Farington-born Geoffrey Robertson, 85, who was in the second wave of the D-Day landings in 1944, said that as the number of First World War veterans diminished it became more important to remember them.

"I remember coming to Remembrance Day in Preston less than 20 years ago and this place would be absolutely full of veterans," he recalls.

"These days none of us are getting any younger and I suppose there will be fewer of us next year than there is now, which is why it is so important people do not forget.

"I served for my country and was proud to do so, but these men we are remembering are those who died in battle, they paid the ultimate price for us, how can we forget that?"

The veterans, who had come from all over Lancashire, sheltered from the biting wind and heavy downpours under Preston's historic covered market as troops of the past, present and future assembled.

Then, to the sound of a marching band, they paraded down Lancaster Road, along Church Street onto Cheapside before assembling for the service on the Flag Market, applauded all the way by the crowds.

"The wars of today bring it back into people's minds and you can see with the turnout that people still remember," said Arthur Grisedale, secretary of the Preston and District branch of the Ex-Services Council, who served himself for the King's Own Royal Border Regiment in Northern Ireland in the 1950s and 60s.

Sgt Major Stephen Wilding, of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment First Battalion, brought 40 troops who had just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq over from Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire.

He said that troops from the regiment, which has a barracks in Fulwood, were also heartened by the warm reception they received in Preston.

Sgt Major Wilding, who himself has served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Iraq, said: "I have been in the Army for 19 years and in the last few years since the wars began in Iraq and Afghanistan, I have noticed more and more people coming out every where.

"The 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War gave this year an added significance and I think the number of people out on the streets shows you that Preston will never forget."

A special picture supplement to mark Remembrance Sunday appears in Tuesday's Lancashire Evening Post

View our two online slideshows

>> Lancashire remembers

>> Preston remembers

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>> Preston salutes our war heroes


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