British Royals Mark Remembrance Day 2011

Following annual tradition, the British Royal Family gathered on Sunday November 13th to mark the 2011 Remembrance Day, with a service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. The Remembrance Sunday service takes place on the second Sunday in November, to remember the men and women who have died fighting for their country.

Queen Elizabeth II led the thousands in attendance in two minutes silence at 11am to honour the dead, before laying a wreath at the base of the Cenotaph. The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge, The Duke of York, The Earl of Wessex, The Princess Royal and The Duke of Kent all followed The Queen in laying personal wreaths at the memorial. British politicians, including Prime Minister David Cameron, then followed suit. Dr Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, then led a prayer service.

Watching the ceremony from above, on the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Building, were members of the royal family who have ‘married in’ – The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duchess of Cambridge, The Countess of Wessex and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence, as protocol dictates. The women all wore black outfits and hats, and each person in attendance was wearing one or more red poppies attached to the lapel of their coat – the poppies are the symbol of remembrance, having begun in 1920. Red poppies were chosen as the symbol due to the poem In Flanders Field, which describes how poppies were the first flower to grow up through soldiers’ graves in Flanders.

Click here to read more about the 2011 Remembrance Day service.

Filed under The United Kingdom
Tagged Armistice Day, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Remembrance Day, World War I.

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