The boy brimming with pride, the fanatics burning with hate... two faces of Armistice Day







He was 3ft tall in his shiny black shoes and he wore his great-uncle’s medals with pride as he stood to attention in the rain.



Jonny Osborne, seven, symbolised the face of a new generation yesterday as he marched shoulder to shoulder with servicemen and women to honour those killed by war.



But three miles across London from the Armistice Day ceremony at the Cenotaph, another face of Britain was on display. It was contorted with hatred, poisoned by politics, and fuelled by flames from a giant, burning poppy.

Dignity and deference, violence and venom: Jonny Osborne gives a salute at the Cenotaph yesterday while, three miles away, members of Muslims Against Crusaders burnt a giant poppy



These were the Muslim extremists who brought shame to the memory of the dead yesterday by breaking the traditional two-minute silence with chants of ‘British soldiers burn in hell’.

Ironically, it was the freedom for which thousands fought that allowed them to stage their demonstration at the stroke of 11am – the exact moment the nation came to a halt at the Cenotaph, across the country, and after parallel services at British bases in Afghanistan.

The protesters were even given a police escort to their protest venue near the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington, thankfully the closest they were allowed to the focal point of Britain’s remembrance tribute yesterday.

War, inevitably, linked the two events, yet they could hardly have been more different. At one, violence and venom. At the other, dignity and deference.

Looking up: Seven-year-old Jonny Osborne, wearing his great great uncle's medals, comes face-to-face with a soldier at the ceremony

Shameful: Muslim protesters break the Armistice Day silence in central London



At the Cenotaph, Jonny shared the crowd’s applause as he walked behind a cluster of Victoria Cross and George Cross holders. Among them were veterans of the Second World War, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Absent on parade, but still fondly remembered, were the likes of Harry Patch, the last Tommy from the trenches of the First World War. A stalwart of these occasions, he died last year aged 111. Which was why young Jonny and other youngsters had an important role to play yesterday, an occasion born of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, when the guns finally fell silent in the 1914-1918 fighting. As the number of survivors and their widows dwindles with time, new generations have become word-of-mouth messengers for those who gave their lives. Jonny told me: ‘All I know really is that people should not forget. I tell everybody about the war – as many people as I can. It’s my favourite thing.’ Lack of respect: Police escort Muslim protesters towards South KensingtonTube station after they began a protest in west London

His great-uncle, Sapper Lawrence Burton, was killed in fierce fighting on the beaches of Greece in 1941 while serving with the Royal Engineers.



Jonny wore three of his medals yesterday as a guest of the Association of Veterans of Foreign wars, of which his U.S.-resident grandfather Terry Burton is president.

His other great-uncle, Len Burton, was shot by a German sniper in Italy in 1945.

So yesterday the great-nephew they never met added a few medals of his own to his blazer, among them a Spitfire emblem alongside Union Flag and Stars and Stripes badges.

Jonny, who attends a Church of England primary school near his home in North London, added: ‘I said a prayer for them. I like praying to God. I think people should. There were lots and lots of people praying for these guys.’



The ceremony honoured the dead from all wars and remembered the loved ones they left behind.



David Cameron (4th left) at the Korean National War Memorial in Seoul along with French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde (left), Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2nd left) and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (3rd left)







Mark of respect: Lloyds insurance employees observe the silence at a ceremony at the HQ in London

Even in the blustery and occasionally heavy rain, increasingly frail legs managed to keep certain sections of the crowd standing ramrod straight.



When it rained like this in the trenches, everything turned to mud. Yesterday it conveniently

disguised the tears that were shed for fallen friends.



Nearby at separate commemorations, poppy petals filled Trafalgar Square fountain and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Field of Remembrance and the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey.



The two-minute silence was observed so strictly that the stillness it brought to this part of

London was startling.



Helping the injured: Julie Dove from the Poppy Appeal attends an Armistice Day service at Chester Cathedral with a member of the 1st Battalion the Mercians who lost his legs in combat

Concern: At Westminster Abbey, the Duke of Edinburgh shakes hands with Lauren Levy (right) whose ex-boyfriend Andrew Griffiths died in Afghanistan In what is normally one of the busiest sections of the capital, I heard a dried-out leaf hit the ground after it fell from a plane tree in Whitehall.

Over at Kensington, however, the fanatics from Muslims Against Crusades, as they labelled themselves, were just kicking off.

No silence was observed here. Captured on film, they burned a large model poppy, and chanted slogans protesting at what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spokesman Asad Ullah said: ‘We find it disgusting that innocent people, innocent children, have been killed in an illegal and unjust war and we are demonstrating against that.’

Jonny’s grandfather shook his head when he heard what had happened.

‘I’m stunned,’ he said. ‘Almost speechless.

‘It’s totally disrespectful to those who gave their lives. It’s absolutely insulting.’

Back at the Cenotaph, Jonny went marching home.

With luck, the word-of-mouth message he spreads will endure longer than the one the extremists were screaming.

Tribute: Poppies are thrown into a fountain at Trafalgar Square, central London