Queen attends Remembrance day service in London

Video. Queen attends Remembrance day service in London

Queen Elizabeth II joined Britons in remembering their war dead, as the country's political leaders paused campaigning for the Dec. 12 election to take part in a somber Remembrance Sunday service in London.

Queen Elizabeth II joined Britons in remembering their war dead, as the country's political leaders paused campaigning for the Dec. 12 election to take part in a somber Remembrance Sunday service in London.

The queen, dressed in black, watched from a balcony as her son and heir Prince Charles laid a wreath of scarlet poppies on the Cenotaph war memorial near Parliament.

The 93-year-old monarch, who served as an army mechanic during World War II, performed the wreath-laying for most of her 67-year reign but has cut back on her public duties.

An aide laid a wreath on behalf of the queen's 98-year-old husband Prince Philip, who has retired from public engagements.

The ceremony takes place every year on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of the end of World War I at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918.

Thousands of military personnel, veterans and members of the public gathered in the streets around the Cenotaph to honour those killed in that war and subsequent conflicts.