King Charles III led the nation in a two-minute silence at the Cenotaph on Sunday, as Britain marked Remembrance Sunday with around 10,000 veterans marching past the Whitehall memorial.
At the first stroke of Big Ben at 11am, the country fell silent for two minutes, the silence marked by ceremonial guns fired by the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery on Horse Guards Parade. Buglers then sounded the Last Post before the King laid the first wreath of red poppies at the foot of the memorial.
He was followed by other members of the Royal Family and senior political figures. Queen Camilla and Catherine, Princess of Wales, watched from a balcony overlooking Whitehall, and the Prince of Wales laid a wreath.
The service, the National Service of Remembrance, was attended by members of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister, senior politicians, faith leaders and Commonwealth representatives. It continued with prayers and a hymn, among them Dame Sarah Mullally, the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham attended his first Remembrance Sunday in office. The ceremony also brought together a record nine former prime ministers: Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage laid a wreath for the first time, after his party reached the parliamentary threshold of six MPs required to take part alongside other party leaders.
After the formal ceremony, veterans began their traditional march past the Cenotaph. More than 300 military and civilian organisations were represented, with participants travelling from across Britain and overseas, while thousands of spectators lined the surrounding streets.
Among the oldest taking part was Annie Duplock, 103, who joined the Women’s Land Army in 1940 at the age of 16 after lying about her age. She spent four years working on a farm in Leicestershire, helping to maintain Britain’s food supplies during the war, and Sunday was her first appearance in the annual Cenotaph procession. Around 20 veterans of the Second World War took part in all, their numbers now dwindling sharply more than eight decades after the war ended.
The march was not limited to those who served in the two world wars. Veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and other military operations marched alongside bereaved relatives, military charities and younger participants, including former RAF serviceman Steve Hooper, 43, who served in Iraq and marched with an Invictus Games alumni group.
This year’s commemorations gave particular attention to veterans of operations in the Gulf, Iraq and Bosnia. The Royal British Legion marked the 35th anniversary of the end of the 1990-91 Gulf War, in which more than 50,000 British personnel were deployed and 47 died. It also commemorated 15 years since the end of Operation Telic, Britain’s military operation in Iraq, in which 179 British personnel lost their lives, and Britain’s peace-support operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where 59 service personnel died. Those conflicts featured prominently in Saturday’s Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, attended by the King and Queen.
The service came the day after the gun attack in Krakow, Poland, in which a British citizen was reported to be among the dead. Remembrance Sunday is observed on the second Sunday of November, marking the armistice that took effect at 11am on 11 November 1918. A further two-minute silence will be observed on Armistice Day itself, on Wednesday 11 November, also at 11am.
Sources: GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-king-to-lead-nation-in-silence-on-remembrance-sunday); BBC, via Nexus Europa (https://nexuseuropa.eu/en/article/remembrance-sunday-2026-king-charles-leads-cenotaph-service-in-london)
