Services being held across UK to mark Armistice Day

Press Association Poppies and other floral tributes have been laid at the Cenotaph in Whitehall to mark Armistice DayPress Association
Poppies have been laid at the Cenotaph in Whitehall to mark Armistice Day

Services are being held across the UK to mark Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War One.

A national two-minute silence is taking place to mark the end of the war and to remember those who have died in all conflicts since.

A service at the Cenotaph memorial in Whitehall is being attended by government ministers, senior international military figures, schoolchildren and cadets.

At Westminster, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord Speaker Lord Forsyth will lay wreaths, while Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka will read a poem.

There will also be a ceremony held at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

The Armistice, an agreement to end the fighting of World War One as a prelude to peace negotiations, began at 11:00 on 11 November 1918.

Commemorations have been taking across Europe on Wednesday. In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron attended a ceremony during which a wreath was laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

On Remembrance Sunday King Charles III led the nation in a solemn two-minute silence in London to honour veterans who had died in conflict.

He laid a wreath at the Cenotaph before a march-past by 10,000 armed forces veterans.

Getty Images One hundred year old George McLeod who served in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers holds a wreath during Remembrance Sunday tributes 
Getty Images
One hundred year old George McLeod, who served in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, held a wreath during Remembrance Sunday tributes