King Charles III leads Remembrance Sunday to honor veterans

LONDON (AP) — The U.Ok fell silent for 2 minutes on Remembrance Sunday as King Charles III led the nation in honoring servicemen and girls who misplaced their lives in previous conflicts.

Massive Ben chimed 11 instances to mark the beginning of the silence as hundreds of veterans, together with some who had served through the World Struggle II appeared on solemnly underneath grey London skies.

Their quantity will get fewer annually – including poignancy to the looks of Charles, main the ceremony for the primary time because the dying of his mom Queen Elizabeth II in September. She had served as a mechanic and truck driver over the past months of World Struggle II, and continued to affix the annual commemoration in London properly into her 90s.

The veterans, with brightly shined footwear and medals gleaming on their lapels, watched Charles lay a newly designed wreath of poppies on the foot of the Cenotaph, London’s conflict memorial. Different royals, together with the Prince of Wales and the Earl of Wessex, in addition to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the chief of the opposition additionally laid wreaths.

Many hundreds thronged the streets of London to observe the event and be part of within the silence, although they applauded when 10,000 veterans later marched previous.

Remembrance Sunday is marked yearly within the U.Ok. on the closest Sunday to Armistice Day on Nov. 11 with the sporting of poppies and a nationwide two-minute silence noticed at 11 a.m. It marks the second the weapons fell silent in 1918 on the finish of World Struggle I.

Officers mentioned this 12 months’s service is devoted each to fallen troopers in wars previous and to Ukrainians combating towards Russia’s invasion.

“We should always remember those that gave their lives in protection of our values and our nice nation,” mentioned Protection Secretary Ben Wallace. “All of us may also be considering of these courageous Ukrainians who’re combating for his or her very personal survival to defend freedom and democracy for all, simply because the U.Ok. and Commonwealth troopers did in each world wars.”