London: Princess Catherine has marked Anzac Day by laying a wreath for Australians and New Zealanders who lost their lives in war, as hundreds of people gathered for the ceremony in central London.
The Princess of Wales led the wreath-laying at the Cenotaph before joining a commemoration at Westminster Abbey, where she spoke briefly to some of the children attending the service.
Earlier on Saturday in London, Princess Anne laid a wreath at the customary dawn service at the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner.
The ceremonies in Britain followed those at Gallipoli, where an estimated 1600 people gathered for the dawn service at the scene of the landings in 1915, with many people sleeping near the site overnight to ensure they could attend.
While the dawn services in Sydney and Melbourne were disrupted by booing during the Welcome to Country, those in Europe went smoothly.
In London, hundreds of people stopped on Whitehall to watch the Princess walk to the Cenotaph after the Royal Marines Portsmouth Road Band marched to the main thoroughfare near Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
Tourists joined Australians and New Zealanders in the crowd to watch the ceremony at 11am (8pm, AEST) and mark the minute’s silence for those who died.
The service began with a Maori welcome spoken by Reverend Dr Lyndon Drake, a college chaplain at Oxford University and previously the Maori Anglican Archdeacon of Tamaki Makaurau in New Zealand.
In a longstanding practice, Australia and New Zealand alternate the management of the service, and this year was the turn of the New Zealand High Commission.
The high commissioners for Australia and New Zealand, Jay Weatherill and Hamish Cooper, walked together to the Cenotaph to lay wreaths.
While the ceremony was held to honour Australians and New Zealanders who lost their lives in conflict and recognise all who served their countries, it included many from the United Kingdom. The Royal Marines band played the national anthems of all three countries.
Australian troops landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, as part of a combined force that numbered hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The military campaign failed, and the forces withdrew in December that year, at which point the operation had led to 26,111 Australian casualties, including 8,141 deaths.
While records vary, the Gallipoli campaign led to the deaths of an estimated 2779 soldiers from New Zealand, 21,255 from Great Britain and Ireland, about 10,000 from France and 1,358 from India, among other nations. The Turks and the Ottoman Empire suffered 251,000 casualties, including 86,692 dead.
The Princess of Wales laid a wreath with a handwritten message from the Prince of Wales and herself, signed by Catherine and William. It said: “In memory of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.”
The wreath was laid on behalf of King Charles, who is due to arrive in America on Monday for a four-day visit that includes meetings with US President Donald Trump and a state dinner at the White House.
Following the ceremony and parade on Whitehall, veterans and official guests walked to Westminster Abbey for a service that included prayers read by children from each country and a Maori song performed by Ngāti Rānana.
Princess Anne, also known as the Princess Royal, attended the dawn service where the Last Post and Reveille were played.
The dawn service included a reading of In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, a poem written for those who fell on the Western Front during the First World War.
At the Cenotaph hours later, Reverend Drake read from For The Fallen, by Laurence Binyon: “Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”
Anzac Day services have been held in London since King George V attended the first at Westminster Abbey in 1916 to mark the anniversary of the landings.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
