AN evocative pre-dawn ceremony will begin Remembrance Day events alongside Ray Lonsdale’s acclaimed Tommy sculpture, overlooking the North-East coast, on Sunday.

The morning of the centenary of the Armistice, which officially ended hostilities at the culmination of the First World War, will be marked with a simple bag pipe performance on Terrace Green, Seaham, at 6am.

Seaham Town Council, which is staging the event with the help of Houghton-le-Spring Pipe Band, will also light a ‘V for Victory’ beacon over the Cenotaph, the nearby flag pole, the Field of Remembrance poppy display and a ‘poppy pebbles’ sculpture, at the feet of Tommy, on the green.

Later, at about 10.45am, there will also be the annual Remembrance parade from the Londonderry statue, with a service and release of white doves in front of the Cenotaph, at 11am.

An Act of Remembrance ceremony and silence is also being staged in the Town Park, off Stockton and Station roads, at 11am.