A MILITARY tradition continued on New Year’s Eve at York Minster when a serviceman ceremonially turned the page of the RAF Memorial Book of Remembrance.

At noon, the glass-topped casket in the North Transept containing the names of 18,000 servicemen and women was opened.

The page which had been open to view was then turned so that a new list of names became visible for tourists and visitors to the Minster.

A page is turned four times a year. Three times, as during this event, the ceremony takes place beside the Astronomical Clock. On the fourth occasion the Memorial Book is paraded through the Minster's Nave as part of the Battle of Britain Service.

All 18,000 names in the book belong to men and women who died while serving in the Royal Air Force in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham during the Second World War.