Shared silence: How Remembrance Day resounds in Korea

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Shared silence: How Remembrance Day resounds in Korea

Published: 10 Nov. 2025, 17:52 Updated: 10 Nov. 2025, 18:00

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Cmdr. Charles Wylie, who served on a Royal Navy destroyer patrolling the seas surrounding Korea during the 1950-53 war, wears a red poppy above his service medals during a reception at the British Embassy in Jung District, central Seoul, on Nov. 9. [MICHAEL LEE]

As sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows of the Seoul Anglican Cathedral, diplomats, military personnel and congregants from some 20 nations filled the pews, red paper poppies pinned to their lapels.

The hush of Remembrance Day — a moment of silence stretching back more than a century — settled over the historic church in Jeong-dong, central Seoul, which each year hosts a service of commemoration for the war dead that is organized by the British Embassy next door.

The annual service has become a focal point for the community of nations that contributed troops and medical support to South Korea, honoring both victims and heroes of war.

For Cmdr. Charles Wylie, a British Korean War veteran seated among the congregation, the service was a personal ritual. The 91-year-old former naval officer had come to South Korea at the invitation of Seoul’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, marking his first visit to the country whose coastlines he once patrolled as a teenage sailor.

“I never set foot in Korea during the war,” Wylie said softly. “To stand here now, in peace — it’s extraordinary.”

A ritual that crosses oceans

Remembrance Day, as it is officially known in Britain and many Commonwealth nations, has its roots in the armistice that ended World War I. The first official observance took place on Nov. 11, 1919, when King George V called for a two-minute silence at Buckingham Palace to honor Britain’s fallen troops.

While ceremonies originally took place on the anniversary of the armistice, which took effect at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, church commemorations were moved in 1945 to the second Sunday of the month to honor fallen troops and veterans of both world wars.

A collection box for the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, which raises money for former British service members [MICHAEL LEE]

Central to the tradition is the red poppy — the small paper flower pinned to lapels across Britain and Commonwealth countries in the days leading up to Remembrance Day.

Inspired by the poppies that grew over the battlefields of Flanders in Belgium, the emblem was adopted by the Royal British Legion in 1921 to raise funds for veterans. Today, poppies remain a symbol of remembrance, renewal and the enduring cost of war.

Though the ritual of Remembrance Day began in Britain, it has long since spread to other nations whose soldiers served alongside British troops during World War I. Similar services now take place from Auckland to Nairobi, from Cape Town to Ottawa — and, every year, in Seoul.

Resonance in Korea

In South Korea, the service carries a unique local resonance. The peninsula still bears the imprint of the 1950-53 Korean War, which remains technically unresolved. Britain, then newly emerged from World War II, sent more than 80,000 troops under the United Nations flag — the second-largest contingent after the United States. More than 11,000 were killed or wounded.

The Seoul Anglican Cathedral, built in 1926, bears the scars of that war. Several members of its clergy were martyred during the conflict. Their memory — alongside those of the soldiers who fought under the UN banner — is commemorated each year at the service, as well as by a plaque unveiled by King Charles III during his visit to Korea as Prince of Wales in 1992.

A war memorial plaque unveiled by Britain's King Charles III during his visit to Korea as Prince of Wales in 1992, located at the end of the southern transept of the Seoul Anglican Cathedral in Jung District, central Seoul [MICHAEL LEE]

“This is not just a British occasion,” said British Ambassador to Korea Colin Crooks, who delivered the first reading from the Book of Micah during the service. “We invite members of all the nations that shared in the sacrifice of the Korean War as well as the world wars. That’s why you see countries represented here that aren’t part of the Commonwealth.”

The multinational nature of Sunday’s service was highlighted by the presence of ambassadors, defense attaches and representatives from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Poland, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as veterans, military families and students from Dulwich College Seoul.

While the Act of Remembrance and the minute of silence were led by British Defense Attaché Brig. Oliver Nurton, the traditional poem “In Flanders Fields” and the Kohima Epitaph — both anchors of remembrance services worldwide — were read by Canadian Defense Attaché Col. Gino Chretien and New Zealand’s Col. Robert Loftus.

A boy seaman at war

When Cmdr. Wylie joined the Royal Navy in 1948, he was just a 15-year-old “boy seaman,” as his rank was known then. Two years later, still only 16, he found himself in service on the seas surrounding the Korean Peninsula. His main duty was loading auxiliary ammunition on a destroyer.

“We were detached to bombard the road and rail lines on the coastline,” he recalled. “One morning, two Russian-built Ilyushin fighter-bombers came in low and dropped two rounds. They were very close.”

The Reverend Dr. Boram Cha, right, delivers the address for the Remembrance Day service at the Seoul Anglican Cathedral in Jung District, central Seoul, on Nov. 9. [MICHAEL LEE]

Though both charges missed, the attack left a hole in the ship’s side, flooding the boiler room and killing the man in charge. Amid the chaos, a young stoker named John Bannister, who was not much older than Wylie, took command of the damaged section. With the lights failing and seawater threatening to ignite one of the boilers, he ordered his junior stoker to evacuate. Alone, he released high-pressure steam from the boiler and isolated the compartment, preventing an explosion that could have sunk the vessel.

Decades later, Wylie came across Bannister’s photograph in a naval service magazine. “Looking at his photograph, I couldn’t help but tear up,” Wylie said. “I thought, ‘Without this man, I wouldn’t be here — nor would my grandchildren.’”

Wylie would go on to serve for more than four decades in the Royal Navy, eventually retiring with the rank of commander. Yet the memory of those months off the Korean coast remained vivid. “After all the devastation of the war, this country is now one of the world’s top economies. I’m very impressed,” he said.

Remembrance renewed

For British Defense Attache Nurton, who was heavily involved in organizing this year’s service, remembrance is no longer only about honoring those who fell in the past.

“The idea now is to move remembrance into the 21st century,” he said. “It’s not simply a mark of the world wars but something living and relevant today.”

Wreaths of red paper poppies laid by national representatives line the altar of Seoul Anglican Cathedral in Jung District, central Seoul, following the conclusion of the Remembrance Day service on Nov. 9. [MICHAEL LEE]

He described the modern ceremony as a space for reflection and reconciliation — one that acknowledges the shared wounds of conflict. “We have German defense attachés with us as well as the Polish ambassador,” he said. “It’s really about healing as a community. War affects everybody — homes, operations and lives. Our services now reflect that inclusivity.”

Though the structure of remembrance services — the readings, the hymns, the moment of silence — remains largely unchanged, Nurton said their meaning continues to evolve. “All Commonwealth members of the ‘Five Eyes’ — Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — take part,” he noted. “We’re like-minded allies still united in purpose.”

Nurton, who has attended eight war commemorations since his arrival in Korea in September, said such events in the country are “beautifully organized and deeply moving,” often attended by veterans and their families from around the world.

He also emphasized that the services are open to everyone. “You don’t need to have served to remember,” he said. “What matters is that we come together, acknowledge the pain and honor those who gave everything — in every war, across all generations.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]