This year will see the opening of Tower Bridge’s bascules for the first time on Armistice Day as the country salutes it’s war dead.
On a wet and grey day, the bells of the Tower of London rang the start of the minutes silence and then rang after the end. Other bells including Southwark Cathedral could be heard.
Sir Robert Smith MP for West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine was contacted over the matter by Mr Eric E. Sangster of Banchory.
Mr Sangster who had stopped to pay his own salute near the London bridge a few years ago and noticed the traffic didn’t stop and Tower Bridge didn’t open.
He asked his local MP, Sir Robert if he could find a way for the bridge to halt and make a salute.
Sir Robert took up Mr Sangster’s request and worked with the City of London Corporation and Transport London to get an agreement for the bascules to be lifted this year with a view raising the bridge on November 11th every year.
Sir Robert said: "Mr Sangster came up with the suggestion and I thought it was a practical way to salute those we remember on Armistice Day.
I am particularly pleased I have been able to work with the London authorities to get a successful outcome.”
Sir Robert and Mr Sangster have been invited by the Bridge Master Eric Sutherns to the control room where they will operate the machinery to raise Tower Bridge on Friday, November 11.
Mr Sangster who served as an RAF mechanic between 1947 and 1950 and was later Steward at the Royal British Legion in Banchory said: “I am really pleased Sir Robert was able to help organise the lifting of the bascules on Tower Bridge and I am very honoured to be going there with him next week.”
