LONDON: Charles III led his first Remembrance Sunday event as king, laying a wreath in tribute to UK and Commonwealth war dead, as Britain’s new prime minister also lauded Ukraine’s defenders.

The 73-year-old monarch had previously deputised for his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September aged 96 after a year of failing health.

Since 2017, she had watched the annual service from a balcony of the foreign ministry overlooking the Cenotaph in central London.

Last year a back complaint forced Elizabeth to miss the ceremony, just weeks after an unscheduled overnight stay in hospital. Charles, who served in the Royal Navy in the 1970s, laid a wreath on her behalf.

Now king and commander-in-chief of British forces, he laid his first wreath at the war memorial as reigning monarch, dressed in a field marshal’s ceremonial uniform.

Charles stood in silence after depositing the ring of red artificial poppies — Britain’s symbol of remembrance. The wreath was mounted on black leaves, with a ribbon in the king’s scarlet, purple and gold horseracing colours.

Two minutes’ silence was observed after Big Ben tolled 11 times, marking the resumption of full operations for the newly restored Great Clock in the nearby Houses of Parliament.

Cannon fire marked the beginning and end of the silence, culminating in buglers playing the Last Post in front of the Cenotaph, before UK politicians and Commonwealth ambassadors laid their own wreaths.

New Conservative leader Rishi Sunak was attending his first Remembrance Sunday as prime minister.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2022