Rain beat relentlessly down as hundreds gathered in Worthing to remember the victims of war.

Scores of umbrellas dotted the assembly outside the town hall in Chapel Road as dignitaries laid more than 50 wreaths at the war memorial.

Two buglers, Royal Navy rating Owen Williams, 19, serving in HMS St Albans, and Royal Marine cadet Sam Greene, 16, a student at Worthing Sixth Form College, played the Last Post and Reveille.

In his sermon, the Rev Samuel Reading urged people to pray for Servicemen in Iraq.

He said Remembrance Sunday crossed the boundaries of culture, class, creed and country.

Councillors and aldermen led by mayor James Doyle and borough council chief executive Sheryl Grady stood in silence as Robert Chalcraft, the town's Poppy Appeal organiser, recited the Poem for the Fallen by Lawrence Binyon.

Mr Chalcraft, who hopes to raise about £30,000 from poppy sales this year, also read the Kohima Dedication: "When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today."

Several cadets fainted during the service and were assisted into the Tabernacle Church by first aiders from the St John Ambulance.

Contingents included Guides and Cubs, some only five or six, who braved dismal conditions The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, which has Territorial Army soldiers from the Worthing area serving in Afghanistan, was also represented.

The Salvation Army band provided the music to the hymn O God Our Help in Ages Past and the National Anthem before a march past the town hall, where Coun Doyle took the salute.

Members of the crowd then took time to read the inscriptions on the wooden crosses in the Garden of Remembrance.

They included one to Chris Lovett, of the Parachute Regiment, who was killed in action on June 12, 1982, during the Falklands campaign.

There was a cross dedicated to the Chichester-based Royal Military Police, which this year lost nine men killed in Iraq.

Another was inscribed with the words: "In loving memory of the SAS boys."

Worthing Rowing Club's cross had the names of six former members on it - E M Bird, L Southwaite, E McCormack, J Reason, A Splignett and A Stubbs.

RAF Pilot Leslie Whycombe, killed in the Battle of Britain at the age of 21, was remembered, as was Jack Collins, of HMS Royal Oak, which was sunk early in the Second World War.

Two Worthing brothers, C Attfield and A Attfield, who died in the same war, were not forgotten, nor was John Fryer, who died in Singapore.

There was a cross to Robert Reens, described on it as a Dutch Jewish victim.

At the parade were the Air Training Corps, Aircrew Association, Army Cadet Force, British Korean Veterans Association, British Red Cross Society, Burma Star Association, Dunkirk Veterans Association, Fleet Air Arm Association, Guides Association, Guards Association, Market Garden Association, Parachute Regimental Association, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, Queen Alexandra Hospital-Home for Disabled Ex-servicemen, RASC/Royal Corps of Transport Association, REME Association, Royal Engineers Association, Royal Artillery Association, Royal Air Force Association, Royal British Legion, Royal British Legion (Women's Section), Royal Marines Association, Royal Naval Association, St John Ambulance Brigade, Salvation Army, Scout Association, Sea Cadet Corps, Spolice, fire brigade, Women's Royal Voluntary Association, Worthing and District Scout Fellowship, and the Association of Wrens.