CHILDREN were at the heart of an emotional remembrance service.

More than 80 Hartlepool youngsters from St Aidan's Primary School and the town's Brownies, Rainbows, Scouts and Boys' Brigade took part in a ceremony at the town's Stranton Cemetery on Saturday.

A child laid a poppy cross on 50 military graves in a section for fallen servicemen within the cemetery.

Tug Wilson, one of the organisers from the Royal Artillery Association Hartlepool branch, said the ceremony was the sixth such annual remembrance weekend service at the cemetery. Mr Wilson said it had been inspired by a similar service held in Holland each year.

He said: "We think this is a unique service in the UK as children are at the heart of it. All the youngsters were very, very good and everyone was very proud of them.

"Not all the military graves are actually occupied but were left for the families of men whose bodies were never returned.

"The service gets bigger each year and has become a very important day on our calendar."

A different primary school is chosen to lead the ceremony each year but the choice of St Aidan's school was especially poignant as the school was built in memory of those who died in the First World War.

Mr Wilson bore the Queen's Standard during the ceremony, only the second time it has been borne in a ceremony outside London. He also held the standard in the main Remembrance Sunday event in London yesterday.