Traffic stopped and the county fell silent as thousands of people across Sussex gathered at war memorials to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers.

Different generations stood sombrely side by side for yesterday’s Remembrance Day services and observed the silence at 11am, which followed the Last Post.

Among those in the crowd were veterans, cadets, members of the Armed Forces, the emergency services and politicians and dignitaries.

In Brighton more than 1,000 people turned out at the War Memorial, in the Old Steine, for the service led by the Archdeacon of Chichester, Douglas McKittrick.

Mayor of Brighton and Hove Ann Norman, MPs David Lepper and Des Turner, MEP Caroline Lucas and representatives from Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and the South East Coast Ambulance Service were among those laying wreaths.

After the service the public also laid wreaths and planted wooden crosses.

Betty Reed, 83, laid a wreath for her husband and her brother, who died in the Second World War while serving with the Royal Navy.

She said: “Every year I lay a wreath because I'm part of a service family. I remember them all, my father, my brothers, my husband and my brother-in-law.

“They all served in the services, as I did in the Auxiliary Territorial Service.”

Mrs Reed is a committed supporter of the Poppy Appeal and was honoured last year by the Royal British Legion for her 40 years of fundraising.

Also among the gathering was June McCulloch MBE, of Guildford Road, Brighton, who served with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) from 1942 to 1946 and was posted as a driver in Gosport, Hampshire, and Norfolk.

She was made an MBE in recognition of more than 50 years of voluntary work with the Royal Air Forces Association.

The 85-year-old said: “I’ve come to remember old friends. Men and women who were killed while serving.

“I’ve never seen as many people here as there are today.”

In Worthing there was a new feature in the garden of remembrance next to the war memorial, a sheet of A4 paper, bearing a long list of typed names, fastened to a black wooden cross decorated with red poppies.

At the top it stated: “To the memory of all those who have fallen since 11th November 2008.”

Under the heading “Afghanistan” there were 102 names, under Iraq three, and under Northern Ireland two.

All had been killed or died from their wounds in the past 12 months – the worst annual Armed Forces death toll since the 1982 Falklands War.

The list bore a shocking similarity to the panels on the nearby memorial, which commemorates more than 1,000 Worthing servicemen killed during the two world wars and other 20th century conflicts.

The chilling comparison was not lost on the majority of those present during Remembrance Sunday, including Territorial Army troops from the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment who had recently fought against the Taliban in Helmand.

Even veterans of the Second World War were beginning to question Britain’s role in Afghanistan.

Don Anderson, 85, of Downside Avenue, Findon Valley, Worthing, was a Normandy veteran who landed on Sword beach on D-Day+1.

Speaking in the wake of five troops being gunned down by a renegade Afghan policeman, Mr Anderson, who served in the Royal Army Service Corps, said: “Our soldiers don’t know their enemy, that’s the worst part.

“I cannot see an end to it.

It is such a waste.”

Many shared that view but, like Mr Anderson, were determined to show their support for the troops, if not the politicians.

The mayor’s chaplain, the Rev Andrew Fadoju, asked the crowd to show its appreciation for our servicemen and women by clapping them, and people of all ages broke into a round of applause.

Mr Fadoju said: “We are here to honour, respect and applaud those who because of their sacrifice, their belief in good and in freedom, have given their lives so we could live in the freedom they fought for.”