As the Queen placed her wreath on the Cenotaph in Whitehall, the ceremony was echoed across Britain, at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province and in cemeteries where British forces lay buried.

The Royal British Legion estimates that 7,500 ex-servicemen and women and 1,600 civilians marched past the Cenotaph where a wreath was placed for the first time by Prince Harry, who has served in Afghanistan, on behalf of the Prince of Wales, who is in Canada.

Stuart Gendall, director of corporate communications for The Royal British Legion, said: "I think there are more people here today than other years, and there's a definite emotion in the air, you can really feel it."

A wreath laid by Prince William carried a personal message, which read: "In memory of Lex, Jo and others who have made the ultimate sacrifice."

Lex is Major Alexis Roberts and Jo is 2nd Lt Joanna Dyer, friends of his killed in combat.

Britain was not only remembering its own dead, but those from other countries. At the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Harrogate, where 1,017 servicemen – including 666 Canadian, 97 Australians, and 23 New Zealanders are buried – children from Rossett School laid a single red rose on each grave.

Junior soldiers from the Army Foundation College in Harrogate placed wooden crosses at the end of every row – most belonging to bomber crews, who were only a few months older than themselves when they flew during the Second World War.

Military representatives from the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand High Commissions attended the service at Stonefall Cemetery.

The Heavy Cavalry and Cambrai Band led soldiers who marched from the Eye of York to the city's Garden of Remembrance. Ex-service associations were joined by the Lord Mayor, John Galvin,who led wreath laying at the war memorial. The 5th Regiment Royal Artillery fired their guns at the start and finish of the two-minute silence.

Hundreds turned out for the ceremony in Keighley, including a veteran thought to be the oldest Royal Marine in the UK, Albert Joyner, 98, who served aboard HMS Curacoa in 1940 when the ship was bombed. Afterwards, veterans were treated to lunch at the Drill Hall, organised by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Richard Jackson, and his wife, Elaine.

Services in North East Lincolnshire attracted large crowds as the region remembered its dead, most recently Sgt Matthew Telford, 37, from Grimsby, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from Cleethorpes, among five British soldiers killed by a rogue policeman in Afghanistan.

Among the most poignant in the region was the ceremony in Castleford where veterans gathered outside the Royal British Legion Club on Powell Street and marched to All Saints' Church.

There were tears as Bombardier Craig Hopson, 24, and 18-year-old Rifleman James Backhouse – both killed in explosions within weeks of each other in July – were remembered.

The service came just days after Bdr Hopson's family received a posthumous Elizabeth Cross to mark their loss. His mother, Lynn Hodson, 46, accepted the honour on behalf of Bdr Hopson's six-month-old daughter Amelia.

A new war memorial is being planned for the Castleford and will feature both men's names.