Will and Kate join royals to pay respects to war dead

• Will and Kate join royals to pay respects to war dead
• Second Remembrance Day since marriage
• Solemn ceremony one of most important on royal calendar

Paying respects to war dead is one of the most important jobs of British royals, so it's always a full-court turnout for Remembrance Day on Nov. 11 in London, starting with the queen and including serving military officer Prince William and his wife, Katherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

The Duke of Cambridge, an RAF rescue helicopter pilot in Wales, was one of the royal family members who laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, the monument that commemorates British war dead from World War I through Afghanistan, where brother Prince Harry is currently serving as an Army attack helicopter pilot.

His wife watched the ceremony from the balcony of the Foreign Office opposite the monument, along with the huge and solemn crowds that typically turn out for Remembrance Day, also known as Armistice Day or Poppy Day.

It was the second Remembrance Day for the couple since they married in April 2011.

As Big Ben began tolling at 11 a.m. (WWI ended at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918), and a gun fired from nearby Horse Guards Parade, Britain and the Commonwealth countries around the world fell silent for two minutes.

In New Zealand, where Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, are finishing up a two-week Diamond Jubilee tour Down Under, the couple attended a similar ceremony in Auckland, according to British media reports.

In London, Queen Elizabeth II laid the first wreath, followed by her 91-year-old husband Prince Philip, and then Will in his RAF uniform. More royals, politicians and government officials followed. After the wreath-laying, thousands of former service men and women marched past to commemorate the fallen.

The duchess, in a wide-brimmed black hat, wore the black Diane Von Furstenburg coat she wore to last year's service and the requisite red poppy pinned to her shoulder, according to the HRHDuchessKate blog.