The Queen has opened the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey, London, to honour Britain's war dead.
The Queen and hundreds of veterans placed small wooden crosses bearing red poppies and the word "remembrance" on 250 regimental plots.
The Duke of Edinburgh also placed a cross in among hundreds of poppies. Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry then sounded the Last Post.
The royal couple joined veterans and relatives for a two-minute silence. Many other ceremonies will take place across the UK on Friday to mark Remembrance Day.
Veterans remembered their friends, as they looked at a huge ring of poppies bearing the words: "At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them."
Veteran Joe Hubble, 73, said: "If they're mates, you remember them all the time, but, during this particular week, you remember them all."
Lance Sergeant Justin McGowan of the Coldstream Guards said: "We've lost so many people and this is one of the ways we can give it back to them."