King leads nation in remembrance of war dead, watched by veterans and eight former PMs

Crowds fell silent at war memorials in villages, towns and cities across the country on Remembrance Sunday as generations gathered to commemorate lives lost in conflicts.

- Emily Dugan

In Whitehall, the Princess of Wales joined King Charles to honour the fallen, after a year in which they both revealed they had been diagnosed with cancer. A two-minute silence was led by the king, who was the first to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph.

An unprecedented eight former prime ministers took part in events in central London, along with Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, who laid a wreath for the first time.

In Northern Ireland, the first minister, Michelle O'Neill, became the first Sinn Fein politician to take part in a formal Remembrance Sunday ceremony at Belfast City Hall.

O'Neill said her attendance was a demonstration of her determination to fulfil her promise to be a "first minister for all".

A message on the wreath she laid at the Belfast Cenotaph read: "As first minister, I wish to take our society beyond old limits, to build bridges and to a shared future together. Today I remember all lives lost in the horror of war and conflict - past and present."

About 10,000 veterans marched past the Cenotaph in Whitehall yesterday, representing 326 different armed forces and civilian organisations for the Royal British Legion, the charity behind the annual poppy appeal.