Sombre Kate Middleton lays wreath and leads emotional Anzac Day ceremony
The Princess of Wales is marking Anzac Day today and has attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in Central London and will later be at a service of commemoration and thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey
Kate lays a wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The Princess of Wales has led commemorations on Anzac Day by laying a wreath at the Cenotaph in a sombre ceremony.
Kate attended the annual ceremony in Central London, which commemorates the 1915 Gallipoli landing of Australian and New Zealand troops in the First World War. It is a day of remembrance in Australia, commemorating the service of the people of Australia and New Zealand who lost their lives in war.
The Princess, who made a solo appearance without Prince William, wore a navy coat, with a poppy pinned to it, and hat and laid a wreath of poppies at the national war memorial before bowing her head to pay her respects.
The princess bows her head in reflection(Image: Getty Images)
A woman in New Zealand military uniform handed the princess the wreath which she placed at the foot of the national war memorial on Whitehall to mark when troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps – shortened to Anzac – landed on the western shore of the Gallipoli peninsula on April 25 1915 as part of the failed campaign that lasted into 1916.
The ring of poppies with white flowers on top had a note signed Catherine and William that read: “In memory of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom”. The high commissioners for New Zealand and Australia, Hamish Cooper and Jay Weatherill, then walked in tandem to lay their wreaths.
Reverend Dr Lyndon Drake recited from The Fallen by English poet Laurence Binyon: “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”
Kate at Westminster Abbey for a service of commemoration and thanksgiving commemorating Anzac Day(Image: AP)
A Royal Marines Portsmouth Road Band trumpeter played the last post and a one-minute silence followed. Kate joined attendees singing the hymn O God Our Help in Ages Past before the men and women in military uniforms marched off Whitehall.
Following the wreath laying ceremony, the princess then travelled to Westminster Abbey to join a service of commemoration and thanksgiving alongside veterans and other dignitaries.
Kate’s commemorations come hours after Princess Anne attended a dawn service at Wellington Arch on Hyde Park Corner as she too marked Anzac Day. Organised by the New Zealand and Australian High Commissions, the Princess Royal arrived for the service shortly before it started at 5am.
Kate listens to the service at Westminster Abbey(Image: Jeff Moore/PA Wire)
She laid a wreath against Wellington Arch during a service that included a reading of the John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields and concluded with the national anthems of the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. Services were also held across New Zealand, Australia and Gallipoli on this morning.
The occasion was also marked in Villers-Bretonneux, a village in the Somme region of France, which Australian units helped defend during the First World War.
A post on the Royal Family X account on Saturday morning read: “Today is #ANZACDay – which honours the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.”
Anzac Day – April 25 – marks the anniversary of the start of the First World War Gallipoli landings . Thousands of Anzac troops – Australian and New Zealand Army Corps – died in the ill-fated 1915 campaign.
Princess Anne lays a wreath at a service to commemorate Anzac Day this morning(Image: David Parry/PA Wire)
The Gallipoli campaign, part of a British-led effort to defeat the Ottoman Empire, aimed to secure a naval route through the Dardanelles from the Mediterranean Sea to Constantinople, now Istanbul, in Turkey. More than 100,000 troops died.
But the plan backed by Winston Churchill, then first lord of the admiralty, was flawed and the campaign, which faced a heroic defence by the Turks, led to stalemate and withdrawal eight months later. Its legacy is the celebration of the “Anzac spirit” – courage, endurance, initiative, discipline and mateship – shown by the Antipodean troops.
