The Princess of Wales has honoured Commonwealth soldiers as she laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in London to mark Anzac Day.

Hundreds of people pressed against a fence on Saturday to watch as Kate commemorated the 1915 Gallipoli landing of Australian and New Zealand troops in the First World War.

A woman in New Zealand military uniform handed the princess a wreath, which she placed at the foot of the national war memorial on Whitehall to mark when troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the western shore of the Gallipoli peninsula on April 25 1915 as part of the failed campaign that lasted into 1916.

The ring of poppies with white flowers on top had a note signed Catherine and William that read: “In memory of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.”

Princess Kate attends the wreath laying and parade service during ANZAC Day at the Cenotaph in London. Photo: AAP

The high commissioners for New Zealand and Australia, Hamish Cooper and Jay Weatherill, then walked in tandem to lay their wreaths.

A Royal Marines Portsmouth Road Band trumpeter played the Last Post and a one-minute silence followed.

Kate joined attendees singing the hymn O God Our Help in Ages Past before the men and women in military uniforms marched off Whitehall.

The princess was to join a commemoration and thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey later on Saturday.

The Gallipoli campaign, part of a British-led effort to defeat the Ottoman Empire, aimed to secure a naval route through the Dardanelles from the Mediterranean Sea to Constantinople, now Istanbul, in Turkey.

More than 100,000 troops died.

Earlier on Saturday, the Princess Royal attended a dawn service at Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner in London.

Organised by the New Zealand and Australian high commissions, Anne arrived for the Anzac service shortly before it started at 5am.

She laid a wreath against Wellington Arch during a service that included a reading of the John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields and concluded with the national anthems of the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

Services were also held across New Zealand, Australia and on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey on Saturday morning.

The day was also marked in Villers-Bretonneux, a village in the Somme region of France, which Australian units helped defend during the World War I.

A post on the Royal Family X account on Saturday morning said: “Today is #ANZACDay – which honours the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.”

Strong reaction to heckling

Marking 111 years since Anzac troops landed in Gallipoli, tens of thousands turned out to celebrate Anzac Day around Australia, but the sombre occasion was blotted with a disruptive but vocal minority.

Nearly 2000 attended the dawn service at Anzac Cove on the shores of Gallipoli in Turkiye on Saturday.

The Gallipoli campaign, part of a British-led effort to defeat the Ottoman Empire, ultimately failed to wrest control of the Dardanelles resulting in more than 8000 Australian deaths during a gruelling eight-month conflict.

“Gallipoli reminds us that while there’s honour serving one’s country, the cost of war is never borne by our service men and women alone,” Australia’s ambassador to Turkiye Sally Anne-Vincent told the crowd gathered.

“It reverberates across families, communities and generations.”

Across major cities in Australia, that message was on full display with thousands lining up the streets to celebrate the traditional Anzac Day march.

But a lack of respect earlier was shown at the Sydney, Melbourne and Perth dawn services with heckling and booing during acknowledgement of Country, prompting strong condemnation by politicians and the RSL.

Police confirmed a 24-year-old man in Sydney was arrested and later charged with commit nuisance and will appear in court on June 3.

Several other people among the 11,000 strong crowd were moved on.

Of particular interest was Australia’s most decorated living soldier – and now an accused war criminal – Ben Roberts-Smith participating at service on the Gold Coast.

The 47-year-old Victoria Cross recipient was released on bail last week after being charged with war crime murder offences during his deployment in Afghanistan.

“I’ve never thought about not coming, I was always going to be here,” he said, briefly speaking to the media.

With formalities concluded, people in their thousands migrated to various hotels to indulge another kind of Anzac Day tradition, two-up.

The typically Australian pastime is only allowed on one day a year, and even then only beyond midday.

—AAP