Each year on Anzac Day, nations around the world pause to honor the courage and sacrifice of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose legacy stretches back to the disastrous 1915 Gallipoli campaign of World War I. This year, senior members of the British Royal Family led official commemorations across London, honoring more than 100,000 troops who lost their lives in the campaign that shaped ANZAC identity forever.
The day’s formal events began in the pre-dawn darkness, when Princess Anne joined hundreds of attendees for a moving memorial service at London’s Wellington Arch. Organized in partnership by the high commissions of Australia and New Zealand, the service saw the Princess Royal lay a ceremonial wreath at the arch’s memorial. The gathering heard a recital of John McCrae’s iconic war poem *In Flanders Fields*, and the ceremony concluded with performances of the national anthems of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, uniting attendees from three nations in remembrance.
As the day progressed, the Princess of Wales Catherine took forward the tradition of remembrance at Whitehall’s Cenotaph. There, she placed a handcrafted wreath of red remembrance poppies interwoven with white flowers, a subtle design echoing the feather motif of the Prince of Wales’ official crest. Attached to the wreath was a personal note signed jointly by Catherine and Prince William, which paid solemn tribute to “soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.”
Following the wreath-laying at Whitehall, the service proceeded with deep ceremonial tradition: Reverend Dr Lyndon Drake recited verses from Laurence Binyon’s *For The Fallen*, the iconic poem that has anchored remembrance services for a century. A trumpeter from the Royal Marines Portsmouth Road Band performed the haunting notes of The Last Post, after which the entire gathering fell silent for a full minute to honor the dead. Hamish Cooper, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the UK, and Jay Weatherill, Australia’s High Commissioner, walked side-by-side to lay their own official wreaths at the memorial, marking the shared bond of the two ANZAC nations. Catherine joined attendees in singing the hymn *O God Our Help in Ages Past* before uniformed service personnel marched from Whitehall to a subsequent service of commemoration and thanksgiving at nearby Westminster Abbey.
After the conclusion of the Westminster Abbey service, Catherine took time to speak with dozens of military families in attendance, many of whom still carry the legacy of ANZAC losses across generations.
To place the day in historical context, the 1915 Gallipoli campaign was launched as a British-led offensive against the Ottoman Empire, with the strategic goal of opening a secure naval route through the Dardanelles strait from the Mediterranean to Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul. The offensive stalled into a brutal months-long campaign that dragged into 1916, ending in an Allied withdrawal with the catastrophic loss of more than 100,000 troops from both Allied and Ottoman forces. Today, Anzac Day honors not just the dead of Gallipoli, but all ANZAC service members who have fallen in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping missions across the globe.
Commemorative events were not limited to London. Services were held simultaneously across Australia, New Zealand, and on the Gallipoli peninsula itself, where thousands gather each year to mark the anniversary. In the French Somme region village of Villers-Bretonneux, which was successfully defended by Australian troops during World War I, local and international events also marked the day of remembrance. The British Royal Family marked the occasion officially on social media platform X, reaffirming the UK’s shared bond of remembrance with Australia and New Zealand.