Remembrance Sunday parades and services have been held at war memorials in towns and cities across Britain, with the Queen, as is traditional, laying a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
The central London ceremony took place in bright sunshine, with more than 9,000 former servicemen and civilian volunteers joining the march down Whitehall, taking nearly an hour to pass the memorial.
The Queen was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh, who at 90 is one of a dwindling band of veterans of the second world war participating in services.
Dressed in the uniform of an admiral of the fleet, the duke laid the second wreath, followed by Prince Charles, in general's uniform, Prince Andrew and Princess Anne, both in naval uniform, and Prince William, in RAF flight lieutenant uniform.
William's wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, joined other members of the royal family – Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, and Vice-Admiral Timothy Laurence, Princess Anne's husband – to watch the ceremony from a balcony in the Foreign Office. Prince Harry is due to attend a service in California, where he is training to become a helicopter pilot.
From another balcony further along, Samantha Cameron watched her husband, the prime minister, David Cameron, lay the first government wreath. Three previous prime ministers were also in attendance – John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – but not Margaret Thatcher, who was too frail to attend.
During the two-minute silence, a distant voice could be heard shouting three times: "No more war", but otherwise the commemoration was not interrupted. Later in the morning, in Tavistock Square a mile away, members of the Peace Pledge Union were due to attend an alternative remembrance ceremony, laying a wreath of white poppies at a memorial to conscientious objectors.
Remembrance services took place in Manchester, Liverpool – where the 70th anniversary of the city's devastation in bombing raids was commemorated – Edinburgh and Belfast and in the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen, where relatives of 11 victims of an IRA bomb explosion on Remembrance Sunday 24 years ago were among those in attendance.
In London, Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely, the Royal British Legion's national president, said: "We've remembered those who fought for our freedom during the two world wars, but also mourned and honoured those who have lost their lives in more recent conflicts.
"Today would have been a personal time for a lot of people, as we each remember loved ones, friends and comrades who have given their lives in service to the nation."
