Princess Royal attends dawn service in London to mark Anzac Day

A dawn service has taken place in London, attended by the Princess Royal, to mark Anzac Day, which commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who died in conflict.

Princess Anne laid a wreath at Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner, at 5am, at the event which included a reading of the John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields.

In Australia, several services were disrupted by booing from small groups during so-called Welcome to Country ceremonies, during which indigenous leaders welcome visitors to their traditional lands.

The outbursts in Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney - where one man was arrested - were also met with applause and cheering from large groups of those gathered to pay their respects, according to local media.

Later on Saturday, the Princess of Wales is due to attend a wreath-laying and parade at the Cenotaph and a service at Westminster Abbey.

The Royal Family's official account on X paid tribute with a picture of troops from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) travelling to the First World War conflict zone Gallipoli with the caption "Lest we forget".

Anzac Day is held every year on 25 April and was initially established to commemorate ANZAC troops landing on the beaches of Gallipoli in northwest Turkey in 1915. The attack on the Turkish defences began at dawn.

Ceremonies, which are marked across the world, also took place in Gallipoli and Villers-Bretonneux, a French village which Australian units helped defend during WWI.

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Booing at ceremonies

Australia's defence minister Richard Marles criticised the disruption at ceremonies, which in previous years has been perpetrated by anti-indigenous rights protesters.

"To boo in that way goes completely against that. It is deeply disgraceful," he told ABC News Breakfast.

In Sydney, police confirmed a 24-year-old man was arrested for "an alleged act of nuisance", and several others were moved on.

They represented "a small handful of people" compared to about 11,000 at the event, according to a statement from police.

(c) Sky News 2026: Princess Royal attends dawn service in London to mark Anzac Day