Enlarge imageLONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of war veterans from Britain and the Commonwealth have marched past London’s Cenotaph memorial to honour their fallen comrades.
The Queen along with other members of the Royal Family attended the Remembrance Sunday ceremony with Prime Minister Tony Blair and leading politicians. Prince William attended the ceremony for the first time.
There was added poignancy this year as British troops continue to serve in conflict zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some 29 British soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since the conflict began in 2003, four in the last two weeks.
Several thousand veterans marched past the memorial on Whitehall, just a few hundred metres from the Houses of Parliament and Blair’s home in Downing Street.
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
As Big Ben sounded 11 o’clock, a traditional two-minute silence was held.
The start and conclusion was marked by the firing of a gun from Horse Guards Parade by The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
At the end of the silence, Buglers of the Royal Marines sounded the Last Post.
The Queen started the wreath-laying ceremony by placing a circle of poppies on the Cenotaph.
Tony Blair also lay a wreath, attending the ceremony a day after he read at a memorial service for Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage murdered in Iraq. The card on Blair’s wreath read: "From the Prime Minister and his colleagues, in gratitude and remembrance."
Members of the royal family, other political leaders, Commonwealth ambassadors and representatives of the armed forces and emergency services also paid their tributes at the Cenotaph.
