National Commemoration of Gallipoli Campaign
The National Commemoration to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign and ANZAC Day will take place at the Cenotaph on April 25, 2015.
Her Majesty The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh (who is Patron of the Gallipoli Association) and The Duke of Cambridge, will be joined by senior government and military figures, to lay wreaths and pay their respects to those who fought.
Presented by historian Dan Snow, whose great-grandfather served at Gallipoli, World War One Remembered: Gallipoli will broadcast from 10.10am to 12.05pm on BBC One. Joining Dan is Sian Williams, who will be interviewing some of the people taking part in the commemorations and hearing their personal stories.
The music for the event will be provided by the choir of Chelmsford Cathedral and massed bands headed up by The Royal Marines and there will be short readings from children representing some of the countries that were involved in the campaign.
Following a two minute silence and a 30 minute service there will be a march past of some 2,500 people, including members of the current Armed Forces who have links to Gallipoli, and descendants from Britain and overseas, including Australia and New Zealand.
Phil Dolling, Head of BBC Events says: “Gallipoli was one of the most ambitious but, sadly, doomed campaigns in history. Tens of thousands of men from all over the world lost their lives in a small peninsula of Western Turkey and today, a century on, the world comes together to remember them, including descendants of those who died.”
The Prince of Wales, accompanied by Prince Harry, will attend remembrance services on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey to commemorate the Centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign and Anzac Day on the 24 and 25 April.
The Princess Royal, accompanied by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, will attend the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Wellington Arch on the 25 of April.
The Duke of Edinburgh will also attend a service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on the 25 April.
BBC Two will be screening Gallipoli: When Murdoch Went To War, on Saturday 25 April (8.30pm). This hour-long documentary tells the true story behind the ‘Gallipoli Letter’, written in September 1915 by a young Australian journalist, Keith Murdoch.
Presented by chef and TV presenter John Torode, the BBC iWonder guide Gallipoli: Why Do Australians Celebrate A Military Disaster, looks at Australia and New Zealand’s Memorial Day, Anzac Day, which remembers and even celebrates this event every 25 April. John explores how this military failure was reinvented to shape their national identity. The guide is available at bbc.co.uk/iwonder