President Akufo-Addo inspecting a guard of honour mounted by the Veterans
Ghana yesterday joined the rest of the world in remembering veterans of the two world wars.
At a ceremony held at the Christianborg War Cemetery at Osu, President Akufo-Addo joined serving and ex-service men, members of the Diplomatic Corps, chiefs and a cross-section of Ghanaians to mark the 75th Remembrance Day.
The day, which falls on November 11 each year, is set aside to remember Ghanaian soldiers and others who lost their lives in the two world wars.
Remembrance Day has been set aside since the end of World War I (WWI) by commonwealth countries to remember fallen officers and men.
Armistice Day, 11 effective, 11:00 am November 11, 1918, was the day on which feuding countries agreed to let the guns go silent on the Western Front in France and Belgium and end the four year war.
Ghana (then the Gold Coast) was part of the British Empire which sent men overseas to fight in the war, some of whom lost their lives.
After World War Two, Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day in memory of those who were killed in both world wars.
At yesterday’s event, there was a call to remembrance and the sounding of the farewell call at exactly 10:56 am.
It was followed by the sounding of the siren at 11:00 am and the reading of the Binyon Verses, a poem written for those who fell in the battle.
There was also the sounding of the last post, observance of a two-minute silence and a reveille, a sound to wake up soldiers.
President Akufo-Addo later laid a wreath on behalf of the government and the people of Ghana.
The Deputy British High Commissioner in Ghana, Mr. Tom Hartley, laid the second wreath for the Commonwealth while the Rwandan Ambassador to Ghana, Dr. Aisa Kirabo Kacyira laid the other on behalf of the diplomatic community.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Obed Boamah Akwa, also laid a wreath on behalf of the Ghana Armed Forces and other security agencies, while the Chairman of the Veterans Administration of Ghana, Major General C. B. Yaache (rtd), laid one on behalf of veterans.
The Paramount Chief of the Osu Traditional Area and President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, also laid a wreath on behalf of the traditional authorities in the country.
The Christiansborg War Cemetery serves as burial place for 419 officers and men who served in WWII.
The memorial at the entrance of the cemetery commemorates 452 soldiers from the then Gold Coast who died during the war and buried elsewhere in the country, in places where their graves could not be properly maintained.
In the adjoining civil cemetery are the graves of six British soldiers and their German counterpart.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu