Britain falls silent at 11am on Wednesday, November 11, for Armistice Day, marking the moment the fighting of the First World War stopped at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Two minutes of silence will be observed at war memorials, schools and workplaces across the country, three days after the main National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London.
Remembrance Sunday, always the second Sunday in November, fell on November 8 this year. King Charles III led the nation’s Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph, laying a wreath of poppies at the foot of the memorial in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces, before a march-past by 10,000 armed forces veterans. Among them were 12 Second World War veterans, including 103-year-old Annie Duplock. Prime Minister Andy Burnham attended for the first time as the current occupant of No 10 Downing Street, alongside a record nine former prime ministers.
The royal family spreads out
The royal family’s Remembrance engagements continue on Armistice Day itself. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will travel to the Royal British Legion National Remembrance Gardens for a service at the Armed Forces Memorial, according to Buckingham Palace’s confirmed schedule. The King, who was named patron of the Royal British Legion in 2024, led the nation’s two-minute silence on Sunday, and the King and Queen attended the Royal British Legion’s Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday evening, where the King and Queen were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Prince Harry attended a separate Remembrance Sunday event in Brackley, Northamptonshire, with photographs showing him chatting to locals in a dark suit with military medals. The ceremony at the Cenotaph, first erected to honour those killed in the First World War, has become the focal point of Britain’s annual national tribute to members of the armed forces and civilian services who died in conflicts. This year’s Festival of Remembrance marked the 35th anniversary of the end of the First Gulf War and 15 years since Operation Telic concluded in Iraq.
Neither day is a bank holiday
Neither Remembrance Sunday nor Armistice Day is a bank holiday in the UK, so most workplaces stay open, although many pause for the silence at 11am. The two-minute silence is marked by guns fired by the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, on Horse Guards Parade, and the service at the Cenotaph ends at about 11.25am, followed by the Royal British Legion’s March Past of veterans. No ticket is needed to watch from Whitehall, although space is limited.
The tradition of laying wreaths at the Cenotaph dates back to the First World War and remains a key part of British cultural and historical memory. Ceremonies are held at war memorials across Britain on the Sunday closest to Armistice Day, and again on November 11 itself, which marks the peace agreement that ended the First World War.
