Hi °C | Lo °C From Westminster to the frontline in Afghanistan, the nation paused yesterday to remember the sacrifices made by servicemen and women past and present.
The traditional Armistice Day two-minute silence at 11am was observed across the country and at UK military bases in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan.
The memorial ceremony at Westminster Abbey followed the deaths earlier this year of the final three veterans of the conflict living in Britain, William Stone (108), Henry Allingham (113) and Harry Patch (111).
Guests included Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth and former premiers Baroness Thatcher and Sir John Major.
The head of the Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, attended alongside the Chiefs of Staff of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the Army, General Sir David Richards, and the Royal Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton.
The centrepiece of the service was the placing by the Queen of a poppy wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
After the service Mr Brown and his wife Sarah were shown around Westminster Abbey's Field of Remembrance, which is filled with 60,000 small crosses each bearing a poppy to represent people killed in battle. Mr Brown later opened Prime Minister's Questions by paying tribute to those who fought in the First World War.
He told the Commons: “Today is the first Armistice Day we have commemorated since the last surviving members of our Armed Forces, who fought in the First World War, passed from our midst.”
