How Queen Elizabeth II was honoured at the Festival of Remembrance

The Royal Family recently paid moving tribute to fallen soldiers as well as the late Queen Elizabeth II at the Festival of Remembrance. Held in London at the Royal Albert Hall yesterday night, the Queen was commended for her “service and duty” to the nation in a moving speech by newsreader Huw Edwards, who announced the Queen’s passing on BBC.

King Charles was joined by his wife Camilla, Queen Consort, alongside his son Prince William, Kate Middleton, and his siblings Princess Anne and the Earl of Wessex. Prince Andrew was not in attendance.

The group was seen wearing Remembrance Day poppies as they watched the proceedings from a balcony, dressed in sombre black outfits decorated with their various military honours. Clips of the Queen’s many years of service played for the crowd, alongside military tributes remembering the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War and the families of servicemen and women.

Metro reported that Edwards said of the Queen, “Service and duty are the watchwords of military life. They always have been. And no individual symbolised those watchwords more correctly, more completely than Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, patron of the Royal British Legion for a remarkable period spanning eight decades.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was also in attendance, while the likes of Andrea Bocelli and actor Luke Evans performed at the event.

According to the BBC, Queen Elizabeth “considered Remembrance Sunday one of the most important engagements in her calendar.”

The Queen had strong ties to the military and enlisted as far back as World War II, when she trained to be a truck driver and mechanic with the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945. However, the war ended before she could join the frontlines.

queen elizabeth ATS — Queen Elizabeth in 1945, dressed in her ATS military uniform

In 2009, Queen Elizabeth also introduced a special military honour called the Elizabeth Cross, which recognises the families of those “who have died on military operations, or as a result of terrorism, since 1948” according to the Royal Family’s website.

Today, the Royal Family will also attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph in London and lay poppy wreaths at the base of the monument.

Megan is a freelance journalist who covers entertainment and all things lifestyle, with a particular passion for fashion, beauty, travel and Keanu Reeves stories. She has previously worked on staff for titles including Marie Claire UK, CNN Style and The Evening Standard and has written for titles such as Bustle UK, Wallpaper*, Forbes and Hong Kong Tatler. She splits her time between London and her hometown Hong Kong, where she currently lives with the love of her life - an elderly dog named Poppy - and her husband.