Veterans of the second world war outnumbered former prime ministers at the national service of remembrance at the Cenotaph in central London on Sunday, in what could be the final year that is the case.

The number of veterans from that conflict attending the service has fallen to about a dozen. The oldest among them was Jeffrey Brereton, who served in the RAF. He volunteered for the air force in 1940 at the age of 19 and worked as a mechanic on Hurricane aircraft during the Battle of Britain.

The ranks of former prime ministers, by contrast, have grown to nine, and all of them attended as Andy Burnham took part in the ceremony for the first time. They included John Major, 83, the oldest living former prime minister; Keir Starmer, the most recent ex-premier; and Liz Truss, the shortest-serving.

Several spouses of former prime ministers watched from a balcony overlooking Whitehall alongside Burnham's wife, Marie-France van Heel. She was flanked by Victoria Starmer and by Hugh O'Leary, Truss's husband, with Theresa May's husband, Philip, Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah, and Rishi Sunak's wife, Akshata Murty, also present.

Reform UK's leader, Nigel Farage, laid a wreath for the first time. Only leaders whose parties hold six seats or more are entitled to take part, and defections from the Conservatives over the last year have carried Reform beyond that threshold to eight MPs. Other politicians who laid wreaths included Kemi Badenoch, Ed Davey, Shabana Mahmood and Lindsay Hoyle.

The first wreath was laid by King Charles, dressed in a field marshal's uniform. He was joined by his son William, wearing the black uniform of a lieutenant colonel of the Household Cavalry. Minutes before the ceremony, one of the soldiers in the parade on Whitehall was taken away on a stretcher after fainting. Charles led the two-minute silence, which was broken only by a crying baby.

A gun was fired to mark the end of the silence before the Last Post was sounded by buglers of the Royal Marines. After the service, about 10,000 veterans took part in a march-past, with more than 300 different armed forces and civilian organisations represented.

Some veterans waved and saluted as the march began. Some of the older participants were in wheelchairs, and one group, many of them adorned with medals, rode mobility scooters, drawing applause from the crowd as they moved through Whitehall. The youngest taking part was eight-year-old Ronan Doncaster, who walked in honour of his father, a guardsman with the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards who died in April 2024.

Services were also held across the United Kingdom and Ireland. In Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, the Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Bryant, attended a memorial service. The event was targeted by an IRA bomb in 1987 that killed 11 people on the day, with a 12th victim, who never woke up from a coma, dying years later.

In Scotland, the first minister, John Swinney, led tributes at a service outside Edinburgh City Chambers, while a military parade marched down the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle, led by the RAF Central Scotland Pipes and Drums. A further service attended by veterans, faith leaders and representatives of the armed forces was held in George Square, Glasgow, with a silence at 11am followed by a wreath-laying ceremony.