Kate’s poignant tribute to war dead at Cenotaph with Sophie by her side

It was the Princess of Wales’s most poignant official engagement since the start of the year as Kate stood in solemn silence in honour of the nation’s war dead.

Kate made a rare appearance at the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph – a sign of both her gradual return to duties and the importance the royal family places on the annual tribute to the fallen.

Dressed in black as is the tradition, Kate wore a netted hat, with her hair in a twisted chignon, and a military-style coat featuring black epaulettes, and embellished at the neck with a black velvet bow.

In the absence of the Queen, who is recuperating at home with a chest infection, Kate, a future queen consort herself, was due to take to the central balcony alone.

But the Duchess of Edinburgh was switched from her originally planned position with the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester on a neighbouring balcony to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Kate in support.

Kate chatted with and smiled at Sophie at the start and, as they retreated from the balcony at the ceremony’s close, Sophie was seen to place her gloved hand on the princess’s back in a comforting gesture.

It is the first time Kate has carried out two consecutive days of public official engagements this year, with the princess attending the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday evening.

Her high-profile appearance comes after the Prince of Wales candidly described how 2024 had been “brutal” and “probably been the hardest year in my life”, with both Kate and the King diagnosed with cancer.

Kate, who stood throughout, watched intently as Charles and her husband William placed their poppy wreaths at the base of the Portland stone monument.

She was seen joining in with the national anthem, and singing alongside the duchess for a hymn as they held their song sheets.

On the princess’s coat were three red poppies, often rumoured to be in honour of her great-grandmother’s three brothers, who all lost their lives in the First World War.

Her diamond and pearl drop earrings belonged to the late Queen, and she also wore her silver Queen’s Dragoon Guards brooch – in a nod to her role as the regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief – beneath her poppies.

The princess made her first ever appearance at the service as the Duchess of Cambridge 13 years ago, seven months after she married William, joining the royal family and becoming an HRH.

She was pictured in 2011 in a black double-breasted coat by Diane von Furstenberg and a small brimmed hat with a large bow by couture milliner Jane Corbett.

Kate has attended every year since, including 2020 when she took to the balcony, standing socially distanced from Camilla, during the Covid pandemic when the increasingly frail late Elizabeth II missed the service due to a sprained back.