I've never been to the Cenotaph for the National Service of Remembrance. Today was a cold bright day and I parked up off Tottenham Court Road and walked down to Trafalgar Square. I was wondering around with the camera and it happened again, "Would you mind taking a picture of us?". These weren't the normal tourists, two elderly ladies with a medal and poppies and happy to be in the sun. Both had husbands on parade today and both had decided to avoid the 2 to 3 hour wait in the cold and go instead to the service at St Martins in the Fields. "Its just as good, with the last post and its warmer" they said, happily arm in arm and standing in front of the fountain. You can tell how the world's changed by the fact that an event like this is surrounded now in concrete and steel with airport style scanners to pass though to get access to it. We seemed more trusting of the old soldiers at Horseguards who had to show a ticket to a burly Guardsman before being allowed onto the parade square. This side of the formality there were anxious faces seeking out friends from years gone by and acquaintances of recent years. Time is taking it's toll and every year the ranks thin more.

After being searched and emptying the bag for a man with a bullet poof vest I wandered down past the ranks already formed up to watch the last columns leave Horseguards via the gate to Whitehall, the sun catching their faces as they marched along, wreaths in hand or pushing a comrade in a wheelchair. Soldiers don't change over the years and nor do men. There's a grateful recognition of others marked with polite applause and as the Women's services form up some wolf whistles and admiring glances. In these early parts of the day there's the same collective spirit which must have got them through so much.

Standing there hearing the familiar tunes, played every year in the same order I watched those faces in the sun. How they changed with each stage of the parade from looking for friends, to the solemnity of the two minutes silence, the way they strained to get the first view of the Queen to the grateful smiles as fellow Regiments walked by.

We all need our time in the sun, the recognition of others of what we are capable of or what we have done. More than anything these people should get there's every year. After all, for your tomorrow some of their friends gave their today.

See the photographs here