UK’s King Charles and Princess Kate attend remembrance event as both slowly return to duty

The king, who was also diagnosed with cancer this year, was among the dignitaries laying wreaths in London

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Britain’s King Charles at a remembrance service on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:18am, 11 Nov 2024Updated: 10:37am, 11 Nov 2024

Britain’s King Charles led the nation on Sunday in a two-minute silence in remembrance of fallen armed service members in central London as the Princess of Wales looked on, a further sign that the royal family is slowly returning to normal at the end of a year in which two of the most popular royals were sidelined by cancer.

Remembrance Sunday is a totemic event in the UK, with the monarch leading senior royals, political leaders including Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his eight living predecessors, and envoys from the Commonwealth countries in laying wreaths at the Cenotaph, the Portland stone memorial that serves as the focal point for honouring the nation’s war dead.

The service is held on the second Sunday of November to mark the signing of the armistice to end World War I “on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” in 1918. Across the UK, services are conducted at the same time in memory of the dead.

After the two-minute silence, buglers from the Royal Marines played the Last Post, and Charles led the wreath-laying part of the service.

Britain’s Kate, Princess of Wales, left, stands on a balcony during the National Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph in London. Photo: PA via AP

The 75-year-old king, dressed in his Royal Navy uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet, laid a wreath of poppies at the base of the Cenotaph in recognition of the fallen from conflicts dating back to World War I.