Overview
- The UK observed a two-minute silence at 11am, with services and wreath-laying across towns and cities from London and Bradford to Oxford, Sussex and Bolton.
- At the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the Princess of Wales attended for the first time, led the service, and laid a wreath bearing a handwritten tribute.
- The ceremony featured A Sonnet For Us All by poet in residence Arji Manuelpillai, focusing on bonds formed through service and care beyond the battlefield.
- Queen Camilla joined Great Western Railway’s Poppies to Paddington, traveling to London before laying a wreath at Paddington Station’s war memorial as the Last Post sounded.
- Commonwealth commemorations ran in parallel, with Australia’s national services in Canberra and Perth and the Australian War Memorial highlighting its Victoria Cross collection.