Commemorations held in the UK and France to mark the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme

Commemorations are being held in the UK and France to mark the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme.

The nation fell silent to mark the moment on 1 July 1916 when the battle began and the start of the bloodiest day in British military history.

Ahead of the two-minute silence in the UK, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired guns from Parliament Square for 100 seconds to mark the 100 years since the battle began.
The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery pass the group of dignitaries, pictured centre, as the service of remembrance gets underway

Across the country and at the vigil sites at Westminster Abbey, Edinburgh Castle, the Somme Heritage Centre in County Down, the Welsh National War Memorial in Cardiff, as well as in France, the silence was observed.

A ceremony at the Lochnagar crater on the battlefield was held and on Thursday night June 30,2016 the Queen attended a vigil at Westminster Abbey.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended a moving service at Westminster Abbey, one of many events being held in memory of the fallen soldiers

Five civilians and five members of the military undertake a Vigil at Grave of the Unknown Warrior inside Westminster Abbey

The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry, David Cameron and Francois Hollande stand side-by-side with other dignitaries as they pay tribute to the thousands who lost their lives in the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago

Members of the Irish Guards at the service at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorial in Thiepval, France

 

A choir sings during the moving commemoration service, which also featured a number of readings

More than 10,000 people attended the service today - but were forced to put on plastic ponchos when it started to rain

 

 Francois Hollande, David Cameron, Prince William, Kate Middleton and Prince Harry arriving for the service of remembrance 

 

Dignitaries lay wreaths at a memorial, pictured centre, which overlooks the French fields where so many men lost their lives

French soldiers stand guard at the cemetery at the Thiepval Memorial in northern France, where thousands died in the First World War 

 

Members of the British Horse Guards stand at the Thiepval cemetery, where soldiers who died in the First World War are buried

 

French guards arrive for the service at in Thiepval as part of the commemorations for the Battle of the Somme

The battle saw more than one million men killed and wounded on all sides.

The Battle of the Somme, one of World War One's bloodiest, was fought in northern France and lasted five months, with the British suffering almost 60,000 casualties on the first day alone.
The British and French armies fought the Germans in a brutal battle of attrition on a 15-mile front.

The Battle of the Somme

• Began on 1 July 1916 and was fought along a 15-mile front near the River Somme in northern France
• 19,240 British soldiers died on the first day - the bloodiest day in the history of the British army
• The British captured just three square miles of territory on the first day
• At the end of hostilities, five months later, the British had advanced just seven miles and failed to break the German defence
• In total, there were more than a million dead and wounded on all sides, including 420,000 British, about 200,000 from France and an estimated 465,000 from Germany