LONDON (AP) – The UK fell silent for two minutes on Remembrance Sunday as King Charles III led the nation in honouring servicemen and women who lost their lives in past conflicts.
Big Ben chimed 11 times to mark the start of the silence as thousands of veterans, including some who had served during the World War II looked on solemnly under gray London skies.
Nuclear test veterans wearing the ‘missing medal’ as they prepare to march along Whitehall for the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in London. Picture date: Sunday November 13, 2022. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)
Their number gets fewer each year – adding poignancy to the appearance of Charles, leading the ceremony for the first time since the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in September. She had served as a mechanic and truck driver during the last months of World War II, and continued to join the annual commemoration in London well into her 90s.
Britain’s King Charles III lays a wreath at the Cenotaph during the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on Whitehall in central London, on November 13, 2022. – Remembrance Sunday is an annual commemoration held on the closest Sunday to Armistice Day, November 11, the anniversary of the end of the First World War and services across Commonwealth countries remember servicemen and women who have fallen in the line of duty since WWI. (Photo by ISABEL INFANTES / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ISABEL INFANTES/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The veterans, with brightly shined shoes and medals gleaming on their lapels, watched Charles lay a newly designed wreath of poppies at the foot of the Cenotaph, London’s war memorial. Other royals, including the Prince of Wales and the Earl of Wessex, as well as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the leader of the opposition also laid wreaths.
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 13: Prince William, Prince of Wales lays a wreath during the National Service Of Remembrance at The Cenotaph on November 13, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage)
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 13: Camilla, Queen Consort (L) and Catherine, Princess of Wales (R) attend the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph on Whitehall on November 13, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Louis Wood – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Many thousands thronged the streets of London to watch the occasion and join in the silence, though they applauded when 10,000 veterans later marched past.
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 13: Veterans, members of the military and the Royal family led by King Charles III line Whitehall during the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph on November 13, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Louis Wood – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Remembrance Sunday is marked every year in the UK on the closest Sunday to Armistice Day on Nov. 11 with the wearing of poppies and a national two-minute silence observed at 11 a.m. It marks the moment the guns fell silent in 1918 at the end of World War I.
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak lays a wreath at The Cenotaph during the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on Whitehall in central London, on November 13, 2022. – Remembrance Sunday is an annual commemoration held on the closest Sunday to Armistice Day, November 11, the anniversary of the end of the First World War and services across Commonwealth countries remember servicemen and women who have fallen in the line of duty since WWI. (Photo by Chris Jackson / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CHRIS JACKSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Officials said this year’s service is dedicated both to fallen soldiers in wars past and to Ukrainians fighting against Russia’s invasion.
“We must never forget those who gave their lives in defense of our values and our great nation,” said Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. “All of us will also be thinking of those brave Ukrainians who are fighting for their very own survival to defend freedom and democracy for all, just as the UK and Commonwealth soldiers did in both world wars.”
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