Remembrance service marking 110 years since Battle of the Somme

St George's Hall hosts a Remembrance service on Sunday 8 November, on the plateau outside the hall on Lime Street in central Liverpool. It's part of the city's 'Liverpool Remembers' commemorations, and this year it marks 110 years since the Battle of the Somme.

The battle began on 1 July 1916 and remains one of the First World War's deadliest campaigns. To give you a sense of the scale, the Liverpool Echo reported that as many as 114 men from the city died on that first day alone. Before the ceremony starts, there'll be archive footage of First World War recruitment marches at St George's Hall, so you can see the scenes that played out right where the service is being held.

That location isn't a coincidence. St George's Hall holds a particular wartime significance for the city: its steps became a rallying point for the Liverpool Pals, the locally raised battalions that formed when figures like Lord Derby and Lord Kitchener appealed for 100,000 men to join a new army. It's the same spot where so many of those men would have gathered before heading off.

Remembrance Sunday is observed on the second Sunday of November, and this service falls on that date. It's held outdoors on the plateau outside the hall on Lime Street, in the heart of the city.