As Big Ben chimed 11 a.m., the queen joined thousands of troops, veterans and civilians in the traditional two-minute silence on Remembrance Sunday. The silence was broken by a single artillery blast and the sound of the Royal Marine buglers playing the "Last Post."
The remembrance service is held every year on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of the end of World War I at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918 and now pays tribute to the dead in all conflicts, including in World War II, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Defense Ministry said Sunday that one more British soldier had joined the ranks of the honored. A soldier from the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, was killed in an explosion Saturday near Sangin in central Helmand province, the ministry said.
The latest death brings the total number of British forces who have died in Afghanistan to 231. The death marks the 200th British soldier to be killed in combat; the others died of illness, noncombat injury or accidents.
This year's ceremony was particularly poignant because the country's three last known British veterans of World War I - Bill Stone, Henry Allingham and Harry Patch - all died this year.
Many at the ceremony wore small red paper poppies sold by a veterans' charity, in a symbol of the flowers that grew in the soil of Flanders Fields in Belgium, a key battleground in World War I.
Each year, thousands of paper poppies are placed in the Field of Remembrance at London's Westminster Abbey to remember those killed in war. This year, for the first time, the field also has plots filled with crosses and photographs dedicated to those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Britain is the largest contributor to Nato forces in Afghanistan after the United States, with about 9,000 troops in the country and 500 more committed by the government last month.
A ComRes poll commissioned for the BBC shows public support for the war falling as casualty numbers rise. The survey shows that 64 percent of the 1009 people polled believe the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable, up from 58 percent in July.
As well, 63 percent believe all British forces should be withdrawn from Afghanistan, up from 60 percent in August. The poll was carried out on Nov. 4 and 5, and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Jock Stirrup, head of Britain's armed forces, told the BBC that the government and military had not done enough to convince the British public the mission in Afghanistan was making progress.
"What we see is the downside and it is a very, very painful downside: tragic losses, bereaved families back home that are having to cope with that loss, people who are injured and having to deal with a complete change in their life," he said.
"But, out there on the ground, talk to the people who are doing it on the ground and they will tell you that they are making real progress. We have got to do much better at describing their progress."
The Independent on Sunday newspaper meanwhile took Remembrance Sunday as an opportunity to launch a campaign to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, describing the mission as "ill-conceived, unwinnable and counterproductive."
