The Princess Royal attended a dawn service at Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner, to mark Anzac Day. Organised by the New Zealand and Australian High Commissions, Anne arrived shortly before the service began at 5am.
Commemorating the Gallipoli Landing
Anzac Day commemorates the 1915 Gallipoli landing of Australian and New Zealand troops during the First World War. The Princess Royal laid a wreath against Wellington Arch during a service that included a reading of John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields and concluded with the national anthems of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.
Services Across the Globe
Services were also held across New Zealand, Australia, and Gallipoli on Saturday morning. The occasion was marked in Villers-Bretonneux, a village in the Somme region of France, which Australian units helped defend during the First World War.
A post on the Royal Family X account on Saturday morning read: “Today is #ANZACDay – which honours the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.”
The Princess of Wales is due to attend the Anzac Day wreath-laying and parade service at the Cenotaph and a service of commemoration and thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey later on Saturday.
