SCORES of soldiers are set to attend a candlelit vigil to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

Members of the Royal Artillery, based at Alanbrooke Barracks, Topcliffe, will join residents at the event in Thirsk Market Place at 10.30pm on Monday, August 4, which will feature a solitary bugler.

Churches Together chairman Heather Limbach said: "In the light of the shooting down of the plane over the Ukraine and the offensives in the Middle East, we need time to reflect on peace, security and reconciliation in our world today."

The town will stage a programme of events to mark the anniversary, which will provide a different focus to those on Remembrance Sunday.

On Sunday, August 3, at 6.30pm - the centenary of Germany invading Belgium and Britain issuing a final ultimatum - a non-denominational service will be held at St Oswald's Church, Sowerby.

The following day, from 10.30am to11am, the town's Royal British Legion band will perform by the clock tower, ahead of war poetry readings by sixth-form pupils at Thirsk School, the Last Post and a minute's silence.

The candlelit vigil will be held 12 hours later.

A week-long exhibition from August 4 in the Friends' Meeting House, in Kirkgate, Thirsk will feature a list of the men named on nearby war memorials alongside the battles in which they died and sections about how the war affected residents.