However, Honey's wife (whom he called "Millie"), as reported by her friend M.F. However he also writes that "Sir Percy's right to recognition for bringing the matter to official notice does not detract in any way from Honey's right to recognition as the first to make the suggestion." Īccording to an Australian War Memorial article, Honey attended a trial of the event with the Grenadier guards at Buckingham Palace, as did Fitzpatrick (although it was not known whether they ever actually met or discussed their ideas). ![]() Harding also acknowledges that, despite extensive research, no evidence of Honey's attendance at any rehearsal at Buckingham Palace, nor any record of an official communication mentioning Honey's letter having played a part in the adoption of the remembrance tradition, could be found, and that the only "proof" was that the letter preceded the formal approach to the King by several months. Nevertheless, each person's idea was conceived less than a year from each other, so it's possible the shared idea was a matter of parallel thinking.Įric Harding's booklet written in support of the monument to Honey erected in 1965 acknowledges that other silences had been held before (upon the death of King Edward, the silences in South Africa "when the war was going badly for the Allies", ceremonies in Australia for lost miners, in the US when the Maine was sunk, amongst others), but in his words "the originality of Honey's suggestion is based on the fact that this was the first time in history that a victory had been celebrated as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives and their health to make the victory possible". While the Australian government claims Honey was the originator of the idea as it pertained to war remembrance, there are no primary sources to conclusively confirm a date in which Honey's proposal predated FitzPatrick's. The first person to publicly suggest a moment's silence as a vessel to hold the sorrow and loss of war was either by South African author and politician James Percy FitzPatrick or by Australian journalist Edward George Honey, himself a World War I veteran. In the same year, large parts of the United States kept a ceremonial silence to honour the dead of the Maine and the Titanic. This moment of silence was registered in the Senate's records of that day. The Portuguese Senate dedicated 10 minutes of silence to José Maria da Silva Paranhos Júnior, baron of Rio Branco, Brazil, and Minister of the Exterior of the Brazilian government, who'd died three days earlier on February 10. The first recorded instance of an official moment of silence dedicated to a dead person took place in Portugal on February 13, 1912. During a moment of silence, its participants may typically bow their heads, remove their hats, and refrain from speaking, or moving, for the duration of it. Similar to flying a flag at half-mast, a moment of silence is often a gesture of respect, particularly in mourning for those who have died recently, or as part of a tragic historical event, such as Remembrance Day.Ī minute, or 60 seconds, is a common length of time for the memorialization, though organizers may choose other periods of time, normally connected in some way with the event being commemorated (there might be a minute given for every death commemorated, for example). ![]() ![]() Naples, Italy (July 14, 2005) – Navy Chaplain Dave McBeth, left, leads an informal gathering of personnel aboard Naval Support Activity (NSA) Naples during a Europe-wide coordinated two-minute moment of silence held throughout the European Union in relation to the 2005 London Bombings.Ī moment of silence (also referred to as a minute's silence or a one-minute silence) is a period of silent contemplation, prayer, reflection, or meditation.
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