Research has uncovered several different origins for this tradition, some going back to antiquity. Two modern examples involve ships. One was the Titanic, which sank in 1912, the other was the USS Maine. The Maine was sunk by an explosion on 15 February, 1898 whilst at Havana Harbour protecting her interests in Cuba against Spain. It was raised in 1910 and resunk at the instance of the United States Government at noon on March 16, 1912, accompanied by an observance of ‘silence’ at most places in the States.

It seems that the tradition of ‘silence’ is a fairly universal one, spontaneously arrived at as a mark of respect to honour the dead or revered. An article in FIDAC, the official publication of the Inter-Allied Federation of Ex-Service Men, describes the tradition as being born in 1912 in the Senate of Portugal after the death of Rio Branco, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. Instantly on receiving the news the President requested those present to rise and observe ten minutes’ silence as a tribute to the great statesman. From Portugal this new custom spread to England and then to all parliaments in Europe. The article goes on:-

France, however, claims the honour of starting this tradition in honour of the anonymous mass of fallen heroes, not only among a restricted assembly, but by the entire nation.
(FIDAC, March 1938)

No explanation of this comment is offered.

Another candidate for the originator of the Armistice Day silence is Edward George Honey. An article in The Times on 14th November, 1925, provoked several responses in the letter columns. One was from a Mr. H. Prosser Chanter. In his letter he refers to the Maine and goes on to say that before the first anniversary of the Armistice a colonial journalist named Honey:-

... suggested a period of silence at 11am. Honey died at Mount Vernon Hospital for Consumption at Northwood, Middlesex, three years ago [i.e. 1922] and at each successive Armistice Day service reference has been made to the fact that the custom was originated by a patient of the hospital.
(The Times, 20.11.25)

The favourite nominee, however, is Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, a South African statesman born at King William’s Town, Cape Colony on 24th July 1862. Most research has pointed to Sir Percy as the actual originator of the ‘Two Minutes’ Silence’ on Armistice Day. he was certainly an interesting character. Arrested after the Jameson Raid, he received a prison sentence but was released by President Kruger on the promise that he would not meddle in South African politics for three years. He has the distinction of having defeated General Botha for the seat of Pretoria East in a general election, and for being the author of Jock of the Bushveld and The Transvaal From Within. Both his obituary in The Times and his entry in the Dictionary of National Bibliography state,

To him also is due the initiation of the two minutes’ silence observed on Armistice Day.
(Dictionary of National Bibliography, 1931-40)

Apparently, on his farm Amanzi at Uitenhage a charge of dynamite was fired every Armistice Day as a signal for the ‘Two Minutes’ Silence’.

However, although the actual act of initiating the annual ‘Two Minutes’ Silence’ can perhaps be attributed to Sir Percy - as the letter from Lord Stamfordham, the King’s private secretary, reproduced in The Legionary (Vol. VII, no. 5, Nov. 1932) shows - another name must also be mentioned, J.A. Eggar. Mr Eggar was a well-respected local businessman in the Surrey town of Farnham. Local pride and rumour attributes to him the honour of establishing the custom in Great Britain, and a motion was recently put to the town council to erect a memorial plaque to Mr. Eggar. According to an article in the British Legion, this gentleman was a South African businessman living in Cape Town during the First World War, and he suggested a two minutes’ silence at a special service held in 1916.

Whatever the debate over the origins of this custom, it was adopted after the First World War as an act of homage to the untold dead resulting from that conflict. It is for this that it will be chiefly remembered. The idea having been put to and approved by King George V, the following appeal was printed in The Times on November 7th, 1919:

“To all my people” Buckingham Palace, 7th November, 1919.

Tuesday next, November 11th, is the first anniversary of the Armistice, which stayed the world-wide carnage of the four preceding years and marked the victory of Right and Freedom. I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that Great Deliverance, and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it.

To afford an opportunity for the universal expression of this feeling it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, there may be, for the brief space of two minutes, a complete suspension of all our normal activities. During that time, except in the rare cases where this may be impracticable, all work, all sound, and all locomotives should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the Glorious Dead.

No elaborate organisation appears to be necessary. At a given signal, which can easily be arranged to suit the circumstances of each locality, I believe that we shall all gladly interrupt our business and pleasure, whatever it may be, and unite in this simple service of Silence and Remembrance.

George R.I.

The overseas dominions were also exhorted to stop and observe an ‘Empire Silence’.

Stop the nation did. All transport pulled up and halted - including the Prince of Wales’s train at Baltimore. At the Old Bailey a murder trial paused for two minutes. In
the most complete observance that had ever been experienced a calm hush descended on the British Empire as thoughts rested on lost relatives and friends never to return from the battlefields. The event became a tradition in 1920 when the operation was repeated, and was observed for many years. However, modern tradition has lessened the impact of the observance which now generally takes place on Remembrance Sunday at 11 o’clock as part of the service conducted in front of the sovereign at the Cenotaph in Westminster.

Postscript on the Big Ben Minute

Although the ‘Two Minutes’ Silence’ continued during the Second World War a further observance was adopted by the BBC at 9 o’clock on 10th November, 1940, the night of Armistice Sunday. The chimes of Big Ben were broadcast. This was the ‘Dedicated or Silent Minute’, symbol of unity and spiritual awareness. It is not connected with the ‘Two Minutes’ Silence’ of Remembrance, and was to be broadcast each night. The daily newspapers were finally persuaded to explain this phenomenon to the general public, and The Times duly printed an article headed “9pm Big Ben Minute for Reflection News”. An explanation of the ‘Big Ben Minute’ and its religious and philosophical connotations is given in a small book entitled The Big Ben Minute written by Andrew Dakes and published by the author in 1943.