The Last Post, a mass participation music project for 300 communities, will take place in the UK during each year of the Centenary of the First World War from 2014 to 2018.

For a fortnight either side of Remembrance Sunday, 300 communities across the country will research their own local First World War heritage and hold musical recitals in schools, libraries, places of worship and community centres, where they will share stories, local memories and testimony.

Poignancy of the Last Post

Volunteers at each event will play the Last Post in new and traditional arrangements of the bugle and trumpet call.

Last Post songbooks will also offer traditional music from the era including It’s a Long Way to Tipperary and Keep the Home Fires Burning.

UK Government Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: ‘The poignancy of the Last Post is something that everyone in Britain recognises as a way of remembering those who lost their lives in war in service to this country fighting for liberty.

‘This is a fitting time to bring that music back home, closer to the heart of communities and use it to remember the remarkable role so many local people played in the First World War.’