King leads Remembrance Sunday ceremony for war dead
King III. Under the November sun and the shadow cast across Europe by almost four years of war in Ukraine, Charles led the UK’s annual commemoration of the country’s war dead.
As Parliament’s Big Ben bell rang at 11 a.m., thousands of military personnel, veterans and members of the public gathered in central London for a two-minute silence that was broken by a single artillery blast and Royal Marines buglers playing The Last Post.
Wearing a field marshal’s uniform, the 76-year-old monarch placed a wreath of red paper poppies on a black background at the base of the Cenotaph war memorial.
Erected more than a century ago to commemorate British and allied troops killed in the First World War, it has become the focal point of annual ceremonies for military and civilian service members killed in that war and subsequent conflicts.
The commemoration ceremony is held annually at 11 a.m. on the Sunday closest to the anniversary of the end of the First World War on 11 November 1918.
Similar commemorations are taking place in dozens of towns and cities across the UK and at military bases abroad.
Prince William, the military bander who serves as heir to the throne, laid a wreath at the simple Portland stone monument that reads “glorious dead” after his father.
Other members of the royal family followed him; Among them was the King’s youngest brother, Prince Edward, but former prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor did not follow suit.
The king last month stripped his brother Andrew of his titles and evicted him from the royal estate over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, opposition leader Kemi Badenoch and other political leaders laid wreaths, as well as diplomats from across the Commonwealth.
Queen Camilla, Princess of Wales, and other members of the royal family watched from their traditional perch on the balcony of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Most of the wreaths were made of poppies, and many of those in attendance wore paper poppies on their lapels.
The red flowers that bloomed on the muddy battlefields and makeshift cemeteries of northern France and Belgium during the First World War, and made famous by the poem In Flanders Fields, became a symbol of remembrance in England and other countries.
The UK, like many other members of the NATO military alliance, has increased military spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Britain says it will spend 3.5 percent of GDP on the military by 2035.
After the wreath-laying, approximately 10,000 veterans with glittering medals paraded past the Cenotaph, accompanied by cheerful military music and applauded by well-wishers lining the sidewalks.
Among them, about 20 of the dwindling number of World War II veterans were in wheelchairs; the youngest of them was 98 years old.
Donald Poole, 101, who served as an explosives officer with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps during the conflict that ended 80 years ago, said: “It is a great honor to be able to remember the poor souls who died in all the conflicts.”
“I know how lucky I am to still be here, thanks to all those who fought and served, past and present,” he said.
“I would also like to express my gratitude to the civil services that suffered during the Second World War, especially the fire service, which saved many lives during the Blitz, many of whom lost their own lives.”
