London remained wrapped in thick fog at 10.30am yesterday as the Massed Bands of the Household Division, resplendent in their bearskin caps, stirred crowds five rows deep along the streets for Remembrance Sunday with a spirited performance of Rule, Britannia!
By the time Elgar’s Nimrod drifted along Whitehall, however, the mist had cleared. Veterans, dignitaries and spectators were left in no doubt that they were witnessing an occasion greater than any individual.
At 11am, the first chime of Big Ben was answered by the roar of artillery from Horse Guards Parade, signalling the beginning of the two-minute silence.
The King, wearing a grey greatcoat and a peaked cap edged with lavish gold braid befitting his position as Marshal of the Royal Air Force, led the Royal Family in military formation towards the Cenotaph.
Behind him came the Prince of Wales, alongside the Duke of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal, while Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales watched from the Foreign Office balcony. Catherine wore a dark grey Catherine Walker coat and, in a poignant tribute, earrings that once belonged to Princess Diana.
Prince Harry was absent from the London ceremony for the seventh consecutive year, although he made an appearance at a memorial service 70 miles away in the Northamptonshire market town of Brackley.
Harry, who spent more than a decade in the Army and rose to the rank of captain after two tours in Afghanistan, stood among local residents wearing his medals and a poppy. Meghan was not present as he greeted well-wishers after the service.
At Whitehall, the silence ended with a haunting performance of The Last Post by buglers from the Royal Marines.
Prince Harry made an unannounced appearance at the Brackley Town Remembrance Service yesterday afternoon
King Charles salutes during yesterday’s Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall
Charles, Princess Anne and Prince William attend yesterday’s National Service of Remembrance
William stands alongside his father during the Remembrance ceremony in London yesterday afternoon
Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales watch from the Foreign Office balcony yesterday morning
The royal party were the first to lay wreaths beneath the Cenotaph, described as an ‘empty tomb’. They were followed by Andy Burnham, who paid his respects before a record nine former prime ministers, six of whom have led the country within the past decade.
When Sir Keir Starmer laid a wreath at the memorial last year, he could scarcely have expected that his failure to adequately fund the Armed Forces would see him reduced to the role of observer this time. The irony was unlikely to escape his successor.
The 860 troops taking part in the parade were led by Major General Mark Berry, supported by his aide-de-camp, 30-year-old Captain Peter Openshaw. The occasion carried particular significance for Peter, whose father, Richard Openshaw, a former Grenadier Guards captain who served in Northern Ireland, watched proudly from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Soon after 11.30am, the march past organised by the Royal British Legion got under way. Around 10,000 veterans and members of the Armed Forces community took part, marching ‘eyes left’ in a shared act of remembrance.
Even Britain’s troubled rail network failed to deter them. In a widely criticised scheduling decision, engineering works were planned for the day, forcing travellers from parts of the South West to catch rail replacement buses as early as 4.45am.
This year’s Poppy Appeal carries the message: ‘When someone serves, their family serves too.’ That idea is central to Scotty’s Little Soldiers, the charity founded by Army widow Nikki Scott to support children who have lost a parent serving in the Armed Forces.
Mrs Scott’s husband, Corporal Lee Scott, was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2009.
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Charles and William joined Anne and other senior royals at the Cenotaph yesterday
Former British prime ministers Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major were all in attendance (L-R)
Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Theresa May attend the 2026 National Service of Remembrance
Thousands of mourners bow their heads during the two-minute silence on Whitehall
Kate and Camilla, both dressed in black, speak together on the balcony yesterday
King Charles salutes at the 2026 National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph
Harry stands with local residents wearing his medals and a poppy yesterday afternoon
Kemi Badenoch and Burnham attend the National Service of Remembrance
Wearing black-and-yellow scarves, 55 bereaved children and young adults marched proudly past the Cenotaph in one of the day’s most poignant scenes.
Eight-year-old Ronan Doncaster, the youngest participant, carried the charity’s wreath in memory of his father, Troy. Troy served as a Guardsman with the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards and died in April 2024.
The Chelsea Pensioners were once again among the most instantly recognisable groups in the procession. Their wreath was laid by a veteran who gave his name as Ron and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1952.
At 92, he was the oldest Chelsea Pensioner taking part. He told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m proud to be asked, to be honest. As a Chelsea Pensioner, I sit with friends who had remarkable careers in the Army, but in here we’re all equal. I’m highly honoured.’
Speaking about the meaning of the day, Ron remembered his service in Malaya: ‘There was a man called Walter. We had breakfast together one morning. We were in the same accommodation block and he was a driver in the Service Corps.
‘One day, the convoy was ambushed and he was killed. I had breakfast with him that morning and that afternoon we buried him. That’s what remembrance means to me: remembering him and all the others.’
Only 12 Second World War veterans joined the parade this year, the lowest number ever recorded and a stark reminder of how few survivors of the 1939-45 conflict remain. Among them was 105-year-old Jeffrey Brereton, the oldest participant, who served as a mechanic with the RAF’s 605 Squadron and helped maintain Hurricane fighters during the Battle of Britain.
London’s black cab drivers once again helped veterans such as Jeffrey and Ron make their journeys home, providing free transport to and from the event for the 18th consecutive year.
The initiative, originally called Poppy Cabs and now known as Cabs-for-Veterans, began in 2009. Around 300 drivers offer as many as 1,000 free journeys, lining Westminster Bridge in an unbroken row while waiting to take veterans home as part of their annual tribute.
In 1802, Romantic poet William Wordsworth stood on that same bridge, gazed across London and described the view as ‘a sight so touching in its majesty’.
The 10,000 veterans and the thousands of spectators lining the streets yesterday would surely have shared his sentiment.