A Sutton Benger singing group performed in front of thousands of people at a First World War memorial in Belgium.

The Village Singers took two coachloads of 100 people to sing at an emotional ceremony in Ypres at The Menin Gate, whose walls record the names of nearly 55,000 fallen British and Commonwealth soldiers who have no known graves.

A further 35,000 names are inscribed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing.

The community choir, who range in age from 12 to 94, performed The Largo from the Last Movement of The Armed Man, Better is Peace by Karl Jenkins and As Torrents by Edward Elgar.

The ceremony marked the start of many acts of remembrance over the next four years to commemorate 100 years since the Great War.

It was filmed by TV company Territoire d’Image and will be in a film showing on French national TV.Choir committee member Elaine Smith said: “It has to be the biggest audience that The Village Singers have ever performed to.

“For many of our group it was impossible to hold back the emotions. It was an incredibly moving occasion, one that we are all proud to have take part in.”

Richard Paulinski, who travelled with the singers to Ypres read the Ode of Remembrance on behalf of Wiltshire’s Special Constabulary.

A wreath was laid by Ellis Hoult, whose granddaughter is the choir’s conductor Rachel McCorry, who lives in Sutton Benger.