The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have paid a solemn visit to war graves in Ypres today as they commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele - where hundreds of thousands of allied soldiers fell.
Kate and William are on a two-day visit to Belgium are joining Prince Charles and Prime Minister Theresa May for a ceremony to remember those killed in the notorious First World War campaign.
This morning, the couple were pictured walking among the graves at the Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth burial ground in the world with 11,971 servicemen buried or remembered there - 8,373 of them identified.
More than 100 days of bloodshed in the summer and autumn of 1917, starting on July 31, left hundreds of thousands dead or injured on both sides.
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The Duchess of Cambridge looked elegant for the occasion in a white coat dress with a grey leaf pattern by Catherine Walker, teamed with a dove grey hat with a delicate pink embellishment.
Yesterday evening, William and Kate joined Mrs May to represent Britain at the Menin Gate and a later show in the Gross Markt square.
Watched by some 200 descendants of those who fought, he said: 'During the First World War Britain and Belgium stood shoulder to shoulder.
One hundred years on, we still stand together, gathering as so many do every night, in remembrance of that sacrifice.'
Sunday's poignant Last Post was the 30,752nd time it has been played since 1928.
The towering Menin Gate in the Belgian town is covered with the names of 54,391 British dead who have no known grave, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
In just over three months of conflict there were more than half a million casualties - 325,000 Allied soldiers and 260,000 to 400,000 Germans - in the Belgian battlefields.
The Battle of Passchendaele left hundreds of thousands of men dead and wounded but was not the decisive breakthrough the British had hoped for, as soldiers were hampered by unseasonal wet weather and stiff German resistance.
The Third Battle of Ypres began in the early hours of July 31, 1917.
Its primary objective was to dislodge German forces from the high ground around the city of Ypres and then advance to Belgian coastal ports from where German U-boats threatened Allied shipping.
Men from virtually every corner of Britain’s Empire took part.
The battlefield in Belgium was turned into a hellish quagmire of mud and shell craters as the fighting went on during the summer and autumn of 1917.
There were an estimated 325,000 Allied casualties, including many Australian, New Zealand and Canadian soldiers. The Germans lost between 260,000 and 400,000.
Some 4.25 million shells were fired at the German lines from 3,000 big guns in the two weeks before the battle started - alerting them to an imminent attack.
The battle lasted 103 days - from July 31 to November 10, 1917.
The Menin Gate memorial in Ypres bears the names of 54,391 fallen soldiers whose graves are unknown.
The Last Post has been played every evening at 8pm at the memorial since 1928 - bar a period during the Second World War. Last night was the 30,752nd time.
The weather in Flanders during the offensive was the worst in the region for 30 years, reducing much of it to a quagmire.
Five inches of rain fell on Passchendaele in August 1917. The average for the UK in August 2016, by comparison, was 3.4 inches. The British advanced just 1.6 miles between July 31 and August 2, 1917 - the equivalent of Downing Street to St Paul’s Cathedral in central London.
In that period alone they suffered 32,000 casualties.
Later, dignitaries and hundreds of guests watched the show, led by Dame Helen Mirren, which included testimony from soldiers projected on to the walls of the Cloth Hall.
Yesterday, the pair paid tribute to the tens of thousands killed in one of the First World War's bloodiest conflicts.
The couple stood in solemn silence as the Last Post sounded and more than 54,000 poppy petals – one for every man who died – cascaded down at an emotional service to mark 100 years since the Battle of Passchendaele began.
Prince William and Kate were in Belgium to start a two-day commemoration of the battle, fought near Ypres between July 31 and November 10, 1917. In all, 325,000 Allied soldiers and 260,000 Germans were killed or wounded.
The Last Post has been played at the Menin Gate nearly every evening at 8pm since the unveiling of the memorial in 1928. Last night was the 30,752nd time.
William, wearing a poppy and his medals, told the commemoration crowd: 'During the First World War, Britain and Belgium stood shoulder to shoulder. One hundred years on, we still stand together, gathering as so many do every night, in remembrance of that sacrifice.'
Today a special service will be held at Tyne Cot military cemetery where thousands of soldiers lie.
Nelly Ayres received a telegram from the British Army in October 1917 telling her that her husband Arthur had been made 'non-effective by death'.
Sapper Ayres, of the Royal Engineers, died in a military hospital near Boulogne in France, three weeks after being wounded at Passchendaele, as he helped care for injured comrades.
A century later, his paternal granddaughter Sue Patterson was among the 4,000 descendants of those who fought who are attending a memorial service for the fallen at Tyne Cot Cemetery near Ypres, where so many of the dead are remembered.
Some of those who have come have relatives buried in visitable graves, while thousands whose bodies were never recovered are remembered in names etched into plaques on the walls of the largest Commonwealth cemetery by the number of the interred in the world.
Mrs Patterson said a letter from her grandfather's commanding officer had revealed that after being wounded himself at Passchendaele on October 1 1917, he was helping bandage injured comrades when he was wounded again by a second artillery blast.
He died in hospital 21 days later, leaving Nelly a widow after nine years of marriage, with four small sons.
Mrs Patterson, 56, who lives in Leeds, said Nelly had been 'greatly comforted by the letter'.
She said: 'The four boys and Nelly were very close and very poor, they were known not to have shoes.
'She never remarried, she lived for her sons.
'My father was a very peace-loving man, he was not a pacifist, he just thought it should have been the war to end all wars.
'None of the boys ever came to see Arthur's grave. They said it would be too sad for them.
'But their children, and Arthur's great-grandchildren, have come out to honour their grandfather and great-grandfather.'
The descendants will join senior royals and politicians including Prime Minister Theresa May later on Monday to pay tribute to their relatives and the thousands of others who fell at Passchendaele.
Also attending is Miranda Ingram, whose great-uncle Private Thomas Madelin died at Passchendaele aged 25.
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