of the event to London. Within a few weeks Reuters' agency in Cape Town received press cables from London stating that the ceremony had been adopted in two English provincial towns and later by others, including in Canada and Australia. The midday pause continued daily in Cape Town and was last observed on 17 January 1919, but was revived in Cape Town during the Second World War. Today, a plaque in front of the Standard Bank building in Adderley Street commemorates the Two Minute Silence. A ceremony commemorating the centenary of the Two Minute Silence was held on Signal Hill on 14 May 2018 at the firing of the Noon Gun. Sir Percy Fitzpatrick Sir Percy Fitzpatrick was impressed by and had a personal interest in the daily observance of silence, his own son, Major Percy Nugent George Fitzpatrick, having been killed in action in France in December 1917. He had originally been introduced to the idea of a two-minute pause to honour the dead when his local church adopted the idea proposed by a local businessman, J.A. Eagar, when details of losses at the Battle of the Somme first came through to Cape Town in July 1916. In 1919, he approached Lord Northcliffe (the founder of both the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail) with the intention of campaigning for it to be observed annually and Empire-wide. His idea was not taken up. Writing to Lord Milner, then Colonial Secretary, he described the silence that fell on the city during this daily ritual, and proposed that this become an official part of the annual service on Armistice Day. He acknowledged that the idea came from Brydone's Cape Town pause, saying that other towns followed its example but "nothing was as dramatic as the Cape Town observation simply because of the midday gun". The meaning behind his proposal was stated to be: King George V Milner raised the idea with Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary, who informed the King, George V, in a note on 27 October 1919: The enclosed came to me some weeks ago from an old South African friend of mine, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, who is probably known to you, at any rate by name. I ought to have sent it before.I don't know if such a thing is practicable. But it seems like a fine idea. I think that H.M. would like to see it...