Princess Catherine joins veterans at Anzac Day ceremony in London
London: Princess Catherine marked Anzac Day by laying a wreath for Australians and New Zealanders who lost their lives in the war, as hundreds gathered for the ceremony in central London.
The Princess of Wales led a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph and spoke briefly to some children in attendance, before attending the memorial service at Westminster Abbey.
Earlier on Saturday in London, Princess Anne laid a wreath at the traditional dawn ceremony at Wellington Arch in Hyde Park Corner.
The ceremonies in Britain followed those at Gallipoli, where an estimated 1600 people gathered for a dawn ceremony at the landing site in 1915; many people slept near the site for the night to ensure they could participate.
While dawn services in Sydney and Melbourne were disrupted by booing during Welcome to Country, services in Europe went off without a hitch.
In London, hundreds of people stood in Whitehall to watch the Princess walk to the Cenotaph after the Royal Marines Portsmouth Road Band marched onto the main street near Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
Tourists joined Australians and New Zealanders in the crowd to watch the ceremony at 11am (8pm, AEST) and observe a minute’s silence for those who died.
The ceremony was officiated by the Reverend Dr Hodja, a university chaplain at the University of Oxford and formerly the Maori Anglican Archdeacon of Tamaki Makaurau in New Zealand. It started with Lyndon Drake’s Maori welcome.
In a long-standing practice, management of the service rotates between Australia and New Zealand, and this year it was the turn of the New Zealand High Commission.
Australian and New Zealand high commissioners Jay Weatherill and Hamish Cooper walked together to the Cenotaph to lay wreaths.
While the ceremony was held to honor Australians and New Zealanders who lost their lives in conflict and to commemorate all those who served their country, many people from the United Kingdom also attended. The Royal Marines band played the national anthems of the three countries.
Australian troops landed 25 April 1915 Gallipolias part of a combined force of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The military campaign ended in failure and the forces were withdrawn in December of the same year; At this point the operation had led to the deaths of 26,111 Australians, including 8,141 fatalities.
Although records vary, the Gallipoli campaign deaths An estimated 2,779 soldiers were from New Zealand, 21,255 from Great Britain and Ireland, around 10,000 from France and 1,358 from India, among other countries. The Turks and the Ottoman Empire suffered 251,000 casualties, including 86,692 dead.
The Princess of Wales laid a wreath with a handwritten message written by herself and the Prince of Wales and signed by Catherine and William. It read: “In memory of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.”
The wreath was laid on behalf of King Charles, who will arrive in America on Monday for a four-day visit that will include meetings with US President Donald Trump and a state dinner at the White House.
Following the ceremony and parade in Whitehall, veterans and official guests marched to Westminster Abbey for the service, which included prayers recited by children from each country and a Maori song performed by Ngāti Rānana.
Princess Anne, also known as the Princess Crown, attended the dawn ceremony where Last Post and Reveille were performed.
The dawn ceremony included a reading In Flanders Fields A poem written by John McCrae for the fallen on the Western Front during World War I.
Hours later at the Cenotaph, Reverend Drake read: For the fallenBy Laurence Binyon: “Age will not weary them, nor will the years condemn them. When the sun sets and the morning comes,
We will remember these.”
Anzac Day ceremonies have been held in London since King George V attended the first ceremony at Westminster Abbey in 1916 to mark the anniversary of the landings.
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David Crowe is the European correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
