London was still shrouded in a blanket of fog at 10.30am yesterday when the Massed Bands of the Household Division in their bearskin caps roused the assembled public – lining the streets five rows deep in honour of Remembrance Sunday – with a rendition of Rule, Britannia!
But by the time Elgar’s Nimrod was echoing down Whitehall, the weather had lifted and there was no doubt among the assembled veterans, dignitaries and onlookers that they were a part of something far bigger than themselves.
At 11 o’clock, the first chime of Big Ben was met by the thunder of artillery over the road in Horse Guards Parade, a salvo that marked the start of the two-minute silence.
The King – dressed in a grey greatcoat and a peaked cap lined with enough gold braid to satisfy the most demanding observer, as befits his role as Marshal of the Royal Air Force – led the Royal Family in military formation towards the Cenotaph.
He was followed by the Prince of Wales, walking alongside the Duke of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal, as the Queen and the Princess of Wales watched from the balcony of the Foreign Office. Catherine had elected for a dark grey coat by Catherine Walker and, in a moving tribute, wore a pair of earrings belonging to Princess Diana.
For the seventh year running there was no sign of Prince Harry who did, however, make an appearance at a memorial service 70 miles away in the Northamptonshire market town of Brackley.
Harry, who served in the Army for more than ten years – rising to the rank of captain after two tours of duty in Afghanistan – stood among the crowd at the event, wearing a poppy and his medals. But there was no sign of Meghan as he shook hands with well-wishers after the service.
Back at Whitehall, the silence was brought to a close by the buglers of the Royal Marines and their haunting rendition of The Last Post.
Prince Harry made an unannounced appearance at the Brackley Town Remembrance Service yesterday afternoon
King Charles salutes during the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall yesterday
Charles, Princess Anne and Prince William during the National Service Of Remembrance yesterday
William joins his father at the Remembrance ceremony in London yesterday afternoon
Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales watch on from the balcony of the Foreign Office yesterday morning
The royal party were the first to lay wreaths beneath the ’empty tomb’ memorial, followed by Andy Burnham, who paid his respects under the gaze of a record nine former prime ministers, including six who have governed within the past decade.
When Sir Keir Starmer laid a wreath here last year, he surely couldn’t have known it would be – of all things – his failure to properly fund our Armed Forces that would mean he was relegated to a watching brief this time around. The irony will surely not have been lost on his successor.
The 860 troops on parade were commanded by Major General Mark Berry, ably assisted by his aide-de-camp, Captain Peter Openshaw, 30, for whom the day held particular poignancy as his father – Richard Openshaw, who had served as a captain with the Grenadier Guards in Northern Ireland – watched with pride from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Shortly before 11.30am, the march past, organised by the Royal British Legion, began. An estimated 10,000 veterans and members of the Armed Forces community took part, marching ‘eyes left’, united in a common act of Remembrance.
Not even Britain’s failing railway network could keep them away. In an unrivalled display of tone-deaf scheduling, it had earmarked rail engineering works for yesterday, which meant that anyone travelling into London from parts of the South West had to board a rail replacement bus service as early as 4.45am.
The theme of this year’s Poppy Appeal is: ‘When someone serves, their family serves too.’ And nowhere is this more keenly felt than in the hearts of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity established by Army widow Nikki Scott to support the children of those who have died serving in the Armed Forces.
Mrs Scott’s husband, Corporal Lee Scott, was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2009.
Charles and William were joined by Anne and other senior royals at the Cenotaph yesterday
In attendance were former British prime ministers Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major (L-R)
Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Theresa May during The 2026 National Service Of Remembrance
Thousands of mourners bowed their heads as they observed a two-minute silence during the ceremony on Whitehall
Kate and Camilla, both dressed in black, talked to each other on the balcony yesterday
King Charles salutes during the 2026 National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph
Harry stood alongside locals while wearing his medals and a poppy yesterday afternoon
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In their black and yellow scarves, 55 bereaved children and young adults marched proudly past the Cenotaph in one of the most moving sights of the day.
Eight-year-old Ronan Doncaster – the youngest participant – carried the charity’s wreath and walked in honour of his father, Troy, who served as a Guardsman with 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards and died in April 2024.
As ever, the Chelsea Pensioners were among the most recognisable groups marching, their wreath laid by a veteran who gave his name as Ron, who joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1952.
The 92-year-old was the oldest Chelsea Pensioner to take part and 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.’
Reflecting on what the day meant to him, Ron recalled of his time serving 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.’
Just a dozen Second World War veterans took part this year, the lowest number ever and a sober reminder of the few people left who served in the 1939-45 conflict. Among them was 105-year-old Jeffrey Brereton, the day’s eldest participant, who served as a mechanic with 605 Squadron of the RAF, whose job included fixing up Hurricane fighters during the Battle of Britain.
The journey home for veterans like Jeffrey and Ron was made easier thanks to London’s black cab drivers who, for the 18th year running, offered free rides to and from the event.
The Poppy Cabs initiative, now known as Cabs-for-Veterans, was launched in 2009 and includes about 300 cabbies offering up to 1,000 free rides. While waiting to take the veterans home, they parked up along Westminster Bridge forming an unbroken rank as part of their own annual gesture of respect.
In 1802, the Romantic poet William Wordsworth stood on that same bridge, looked out over London and wrote of ‘a sight so touching in its majesty’.
Not one of the 10,000 veterans or the thousands more who lined the streets yesterday would have disagreed.
