British King Charles III and the heir to the throne's wife, Princess Catherine of Wales took part in a Remembrance Day ceremony in central London. The broadcast was conducted by the BBC Broadcasting Corporation.
At 11:00 a.m. local time, members of the royal family, along with the rest of the country, honored the memory of fallen servicemen with two minutes of silence, signaled by the tolling of Big Ben, the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster. Charles III then laid a wreath at the Cenotaph, a symbolic tombstone for fallen soldiers in central London. He was followed by Crown Prince William, the monarch's brother Edward, Duke of Edinburgh and his sister Princess Anne.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer also took part in the wreath-laying ceremony. “This weekend we gather to honor those who gave their lives to keep our country safe. The freedoms we enjoy today (democracy, values, way of life) were hard won over several generations. "We are forever indebted to these brave men who fought to defend this country and gave the ultimate sacrifice," the head of government said before the ceremony.
Princess Catherine of Wales, who announced on September 9 that she had finished her cancer treatment, watched the event from the balcony of the British Foreign Office building with Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh. Queen Camilla was absent due to a respiratory infection.
The event was also attended by the former prime ministers of the kingdom John Major (1990-1997), Tony Blair (1997-2007), Gordon Brown (2007-2010), David Cameron (2010-2016), Theresa May (2016 -2019), Boris Johnson (2019-2022), Liz Truss (2022) and Rishi Sunak (2022-2024). In addition, wreaths were laid by the Chief of the Defense Staff of the British Armed Forces Admiral Tony Radakin, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badnock, the Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, members of the government and ambassadors of the countries of the Commonwealth.
Remembrance Day in Great Britain is traditionally celebrated on the Sunday closest to November 11 - that day in 1919. King George V established World War I Remembrance Day by decree. According to parliamentary data, about 880 thousand soldiers from the kingdom died in the First World War - more than in any other war.