Veterans remember start of WWI
LONDON, England -- Frail veterans of World War I have gathered in London to remember the 90th anniversary of the start of the conflict.
The four former British servicemen, all now more than 100 years old, met at the Cenotaph war monument for a service of remembrance.
Three of the men arrived in wheelchairs, with another determined to walk unaided as the group carried wreaths to lay at the Cenotaph.
Shortly before 11 a.m., escorts from the current Armed Forces helped three of the veterans, pushing their wheelchairs the few yards from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the monument.
Britain's oldest surviving veteran, Henry Allingham, 108, along with Fred Lloyd, 106, and Jack Oborne, 104, carried wreaths of poppies on their laps as they were wheeled into position for the service.
Royal Navy veteran William Stone, 103, walked behind his colleagues under the shade of Whitehall's canopy of trees.
The veterans looked on at the hundreds of members of the public who had also gathered along the route as Big Ben chimed the hour, the UK's Press Association reported.
The four men then moved forward in unison to lay their wreaths at the base of the monument to pay tribute to the 750,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers killed during the four-year war.
Allingham, who had served at the Somme, Battle of Jutland and the third battle of Ypres, struggled free of his wheelchair and bent down in front of the Cenotaph unaided.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Veterans Minister Ivor Caplin and Air Chief Marshal Sir Anthony Bagnall, vice chief of the defense staff, also placed wreaths on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, the government and the Commonwealth.
 A bagpiper played as hundreds of members of the public gathered for the ceremony. |  |
"This handful of survivors from World War I have gathered here this morning to remember the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of their war, a war which tragically changed the face of Europe and significantly changed their lives," Dennis Goodwin, secretary of the World War I Veterans' Association, told the gathering.
The war, Goodwin said, "brought sorrow and sadness into every hamlet, village, town and city across our country.
"These are very brave men, as witnessed by the fact that they made this journey to London today to stand in front of the country's, the queen's monument to our glorious dead.
"They are here to remember their survival and to pay homage to those who were less fortunate than they."
