Retired priest the Rev Colin Johnson has called for Remembrance Day to be moved to his birthday in June.

He shocked a packed congregation at Holy Trinity Church, Sheerness, as part of today's Remembrance Sunday service.

In a sermon, the 75-year-old former radio journalist said: "I sometimes think it would be better to recall the Great War, in particular, in June, and on June 28 specifically. It just so happens to be my birthday. Oh, and also the birthday of King Henry the Eighth, he of the six wives.

"It would also be a bit warmer and probably drier than Remembrance Days I have known."

He said for the past 100 years the world has marked the end of the Great War on November 11, the day when the "guns fell silent."

But he said: "It was the Armistice. It was just a cease-fire. And in some places it was a fairly fragile cease-fire at that. In parts of colonial Africa the fighting continued for several more weeks until news of the Armistice filtered through.

He added: "The two sides met in Paris and eventually peace was declared in the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. On some war memorials 1914 to 1919 are given as the dates of the First World War.

"June 28 was particularly poignant because exactly five years before, the heir to the Austrian empire was assassinated in Sarajevo which led to a complicated series of treaties and alliances between the European powers which eventually plunged the world into a war in which tens of millions died."

He said: "Many people ask if it is time to let Remembrance Day fade away, just as those veterans of bygone conflicts are slowly passing away into history. Obviously, no.

"As memories grow dim we must never forget the effect war has on God’s Earth. There’s suffering and death, not only of the armed forces but of civilians, men, women and children. Millions dead, millions more injured, countless others damaged in mind and body.

"When we forget Remembrance Day we forget the horrors of war, then and now. We forget those horrors at our peril."

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