Accessibility options


Queen leads tribute to the war dead

Date: 9/11/2009 05:17:39

Search: Queen Remembrance Sunday

The Queen has led the nation in remembering Britain's war dead at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony, in a weekend that saw the death toll in Afghanistan rise by two more lives

The monarch was joined by other members of the Royal Family, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition party leaders at the wreath-laying event at the Cenotaph in Whitehall.

After the Two Minutes' Silence, the Queen laid the first wreath. She was followed in placing wreaths by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Harry, on behalf of the Prince of Wales who is on an official visit to Canada, and Prince William, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, the Princess Royal and the Duke of Kent.

They were followed by Mr Brown, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, high commissioners from Commonwealth countries and defence chiefs. Approximately 7,500 ex-service men and women and 1,600 civilians were taking part in a march past the Cenotaph.

Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends

At Saturday night's annual Festival of Remembrance in London the mounting death toll of British troops in Afghanistan dominated everybody's thoughts. There were constant references to events in Afghanistan during the evening and the audience at the Royal Albert Hall - including the Queen and the Prime Minister - were shown film of operations to fly wounded servicemen back to Britain and interviews with soldiers expressing sadness at the loss of their colleagues.

The Festival of Remembrance, for many years devoted to remembering the dead of the First and Second World Wars, had a change of emphasis this year in the wake of military losses in Afghanistan, where the British death toll since operations began there in 2001 has risen to 230.

Two British soldiers died over the weekend in separate explosions near Sangin, in central Helmand Province. One was from the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles and the other, killed on Remembrance Sunday, was from 4th Battalion, The Rifles. Their families have been informed.

Before Armed Forces sweetheart Hayley Westenra sang We'll Meet Again at the Festival of Remembrance in honour of the original Armed Forces sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn, Dame Vera appeared on film saying; "It's a song that suits the situation at the moment, with the boys in Afghanistan, and so far away from home. We must not forget, we must always remember."

2009 © Press Association

Page: 12

Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends


Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends

  • Bussell to be Ships 'Godmother'
    Bussell to be Ships 'Godmother'
    Darcy Bussell is to become 'godmother' to the biggest cruiseliner to be built specifically for the British market.The ballerina will launch the vessel in the new year at a special naming ceremony in Southampton.
  • Flood bridges on brink of collapse
    Flood bridges on brink of collapse
    Six bridges have already fallen in the region. Now 1800 bridges are to be inspected in Cumbria by structural engineers amid fears they could collapse at any moment due to damage caused by flooding. The Calva bridge in Workington has been condemned.
  • Wales hammer Argentina
    Wales hammer Argentina
    Wales beat Argentina 33-16 in Cardiff
  • Celebs support Jedward
    Celebs support Jedward
    Will Jeward's rendition of 'I'm your man' be enough? Celebrities give the Grime twins their backing ahead of tonight's eviction
arrow
Bussell to be Ships 'Godmother'
Darcy Bussell is to become 'godmother' to the biggest cruiseliner to be built specifically for the British market.The ballerina will launch the vessel in the new year at a special naming ceremony in Southampton.

5 day forecastMy Local Weather

Cloudy
London
min: 10º
max:13º
 
 

Daily Pictures

Click here for a larger picture
Free daily picture newsletter
 
 
News

Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends

Skip to page content | Text onlyGraphical version of this page

Tiscali Quicklinks. Please visit our Accessibility Page for a list of the Access Keys you can use to find your way around the site, skip directly to the main navigation, to the page content, or to more links within news.

web |  shopping |  this site |  video |  local services

Page Footer


Access keys


You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
  • (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
  • (1) Navigate to Home page.
  • (2) Navigate to My email.
  • (3) Navigate to My Account.
  • (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
  • (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
  • (6) Navigate to Members channel.
  • (7) Navigate to Services channel.
  • (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
  • (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
  • ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
  • (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
  • (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
  • (x) Text only version of this page.
Background images used:
furniture images used in the site icons used in the site images used in the header