At 10.30am yesterday, London remained wrapped in thick fog as the Massed Bands of the Household Division, resplendent in their bearskin caps, stirred crowds gathered five deep along the streets for Remembrance Sunday with a spirited performance of Rule, Britannia!
By the time Elgar’s Nimrod drifted through Whitehall, the mist had cleared. Veterans, dignitaries and thousands of spectators were left with a powerful sense that they were taking part in an occasion much greater than any one individual.
As Big Ben struck its first chime at 11am, artillery thundered from Horse Guards Parade across the road, signalling the beginning of the traditional two-minute silence.
The King, wearing a grey greatcoat and a peaked cap richly trimmed with gold braid in keeping with his position as Marshal of the Royal Air Force, led the Royal Family towards the Cenotaph in military formation.
Behind him came the Prince of Wales, alongside the Duke of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal. 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 personal tribute, earrings once owned by Princess Diana.
Prince Harry was absent from the London ceremony for the seventh consecutive year, although he made an unexpected 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 reached the rank of captain after serving two tours in Afghanistan, stood among local mourners wearing his medals and a poppy. Meghan was not present as he greeted well-wishers following the service.
In Whitehall, the silence ended with the haunting notes of The Last Post, played 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 beside his father during yesterday afternoon’s Remembrance ceremony in London
Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales watch the proceedings from the Foreign Office balcony yesterday morning
The Royal Family were the first to place wreaths beneath the Cenotaph, the memorial often described as an ’empty tomb’. They were followed by Andy Burnham, who paid his respects in front of a record nine former prime ministers, six of whom had held office during the past ten years.
When Sir Keir Starmer laid a wreath at the Cenotaph last year, he could hardly have expected that criticism over his Government’s failure to adequately fund the Armed Forces would see him reduced to the role of observer this time. The irony is unlikely to have escaped his successor.
The 860 service personnel 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 special meaning for Peter, whose father, Richard Openshaw, a former Grenadier Guards captain who served in Northern Ireland, watched proudly from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The march past began shortly before 11.30am under the organisation of the Royal British Legion. Around 10,000 veterans and members of the wider Armed Forces community took part, marching with ‘eyes left’ in a shared act of remembrance.
Even Britain’s troubled railway network failed to keep them away. In an infuriating piece of scheduling, engineering works had been planned for the same day, forcing travellers from parts of the South West to begin their journeys as early as 4.45am and use replacement buses into London.
This year’s Poppy Appeal carries the message: ‘When someone serves, their family serves too.’ That sentiment was especially evident among the members of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, the charity founded by Army widow Nikki Scott to support children who have lost a parent in military service.
Nikki’s husband, Corporal Lee Scott, was killed in Afghanistan in 2009.
Charles and William joined Princess Anne and other senior royals at the Cenotaph yesterday
Former prime ministers Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major attended (L-R)
Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Theresa May attend the 2026 National Service of Remembrance
Thousands of mourners lower their heads during the two-minute silence in Whitehall
Kate and Camilla, both dressed in black, speak together on the balcony yesterday
King Charles salutes at the Cenotaph during the 2026 National Service of Remembrance
Harry stands alongside 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 past the Cenotaph, creating one of the day’s most emotional scenes.
Eight-year-old Ronan Doncaster, the youngest person taking part, carried the charity’s wreath in memory of his father, Troy. Troy had served as a Guardsman with the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards before dying in April 2024.
The Chelsea Pensioners were once again among the most distinctive groups in the procession. Their wreath was laid by a veteran known simply as Ron, who joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1952.
At 92, Ron was the oldest Chelsea Pensioner in the parade. Speaking to Our News Outlet, he said: ‘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.’
He also reflected on his service in Malaya and the personal memories that have stayed with him: ‘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.
‘That day, the convoy was ambushed and he was killed. I had breakfast with him in the morning and buried him that afternoon. That is what remembrance means to me – remembering him and everyone else.’
Only 12 Second World War veterans joined the parade this year, the smallest number ever recorded and a solemn reminder of how few survivors of the 1939-45 conflict remain. Among them was 105-year-old Jeffrey Brereton, the oldest participant, who worked as a mechanic with 605 Squadron RAF and helped maintain Hurricane fighters during the Battle of Britain.
Veterans including Jeffrey and Ron were given a helping hand on their journeys home by London’s black-cab drivers, who provided free transport to and from the event for the 18th consecutive year.
The scheme, originally launched as Poppy Cabs in 2009 and now called Cabs-for-Veterans, involves around 300 drivers and provides as many as 1,000 complimentary journeys. While waiting to take veterans home, the cabs lined Westminster Bridge in an unbroken row, creating their own 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 taking part, along with the thousands who filled the streets yesterday, would surely have understood exactly what he meant.
