After attending the Festival of Remembrance on Saturday and Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph, The Duchess of Edinburgh has continued to remember those who sacrificed their lives in conflict.
The Duchess attended the National Memorial Arboretum’s annual Armistice Day service at the Armed Forces Memorial.
Sophie laid a wreath in Remembrance. (Royal Family)
Sophie joined veterans, serving personnel and members of the public at the base of the Armed Forces Memorial to pay their respects to those who have served and sacrificed for the country.
Her Royal Highness laid a wreath with a message that read: ‘In memory of our fallen.’
Across the UK, the traditional two-minute silence at 11:00 on 11 November was observed. It marked the time and date when the World War One armistice came into effect. While the two-minute tradition began to commemorate those killed in World War One, it is now used to remember all the people killed in wars since then.
In addition to an Act of Remembrance, the service featured performances by Black Voices, British Army Band Catterick, Carly Paoli and participants in the Talent in the Ranks programme.
The Duchess also met with a number of veterans who attended today’s Service at the Arboretum and took the time to view a number of the different memorials. She also took in the memorial itself and read through the 16,000 names of those who were killed.
The National Memorial Arboretum was opened by Elizabeth II in 2007 and is designed so at 11:00am on 11th November, a shaft of light falls on the bronze wreath in its centre.
For today’s occasion, Sophie opted to wear a long black coat from Armani, a matching pillbox hat with a bow embellishment and suede boots from Prada.
Sophie completed her look with pearl drop earrings and a Regimental Brooch from The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, of which she is Colonel-in-Chief, as well as three poppies.
Sophie read the names on the Memorial. (Royal Family)
During the Service, Sophie gave a reading of ‘For The Fallen’, a poem by Lawrence Binyo:
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
