More than 100,000 troops who fought in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign were remembered on Anzac Day as Catherine, Princess of Wales, laid a wreath at the Cenotaph on Whitehall. The wreath — handed to her by a woman in New Zealand naval dress and bearing a note signed by Catherine and William — was placed at the foot of the national war memorial as New Zealand and Australian high commissioners Hamish Cooper and Jay Weatherill also laid wreaths.

Cenotaph ceremony on Whitehall Catherine, Princess of Wales, made a solo appearance at the Cenotaph on Anzac Day to place a wreath at the national war memorial. A woman in New Zealand naval dress handed the ring of poppies to the princess, who laid it at the base of the memorial. The floral tribute included white flowers arranged to suggest the Prince of Wales’ feathers and a note signed by Catherine and William that read: "In memory of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom." Hundreds of members of the public pressed against barriers along Whitehall to watch the short, formal ritual. The high commissioners for New Zealand and Australia, Hamish Cooper and Jay Weatherill, followed the princess and walked in tandem to lay their own wreaths. A Royal Marines Portsmouth Road Band trumpeter sounded the Last Post and a one-minute silence was observed. Attendees sang the hymn "O God Our Help in Ages Past" before military personnel marched off Whitehall. Westminster Abbey, dawn services and cultural elements After the Cenotaph service, the Princess of Wales attended a commemoration and thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey in the afternoon. The Abbey service included prayers from children of each country and a waiata performed by Ngati Ranana, a London-based Māori cultural group. The use of Māori song and children’s prayers underlined the transnational nature of Anzac remembrance in the capital. Earlier on Saturday, the Princess Royal attended a dawn service near Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner. That service, organised by the New Zealand and Australian high commissions, included a reading of the John McCrae poem "In Flanders Fields" and the national anthems of the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. Services were also held on the Gallipoli peninsula, in towns across New Zealand and Australia, and in Villers-Bretonneux in France, reflecting the wide geographic spread of Anzac commemorations. Words recited, titles remembered Reverend Dr Lyndon Drake recited lines from Laurence Binyon’s poem "The Fallen": "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." That passage is a central element of many Anzac Day services and was followed in London by the traditional military music and silence. The Very Reverend Joanne Kelly-Moore addressed the Westminster Abbey congregation and invoked contemporary conflicts while linking them to the historical memory of Gallipoli. In her remarks she listed areas currently affected by fighting and displacement and said that remembering the Anzacs should challenge the living to confront the ongoing consequences of war. Historical context of the Gallipoli campaign The ceremonies marked the 1915 landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps on the western shore of the Gallipoli peninsula. The Gallipoli campaign formed part of a wider British-led attempt during the First World War to force the Dardanelles and open a naval route to Constantinople, now Istanbul. Sources covering the commemorations noted that the campaign failed to achieve its strategic aims and that more than 100,000 troops died in operations that extended into 1916. The hard numbers and the repeated readings of poems and hymns kept the focus on loss and remembrance rather than on detailed military analysis.

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A Royal Marines Portsmouth Road Band trumpeter played the Last Post and a one-minute silence observed at Whitehall ended the short ceremony.

This article was created with AI assistance.