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The great Peace Tower bell tolled 11 times over a silent crowd of thousands clustered around the National War Memorial to mark Remembrance Day and the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

That conflict ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

As the bell's echoes died, a piper skirled the mournful notes of a lament and artillery pieces on Parliament Hill began a slow, measured, 21-gun salute.

A flight of four CF-18 jets snarled overhead, with one plane pulling up and away from the others to leave what is known as the missing man formation.

The sidewalks and roadways surrounding the memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were jammed with an estimated 25,000 spectators — old and young alike — all gathered quiet and solemn as the rituals played out.

Governor-General Michaëlle Jean and Prime Minister Stephen Harper presided over the ceremony and laid wreaths, along with Avril Dianna Stachnik of Waskatenau, Alta., the Silver Cross mother representing generations of grieved parents.

Her son, Sgt. Shane Hank Stachnik, was killed in Afghanistan in September 2006.

Master Cpl. Paul Franklin, who lost both legs in Afghanistan in 2006, was among the onlookers.

“You really get a sense of the connection between the old veterans and the new veterans, the old wounded and the new wounded like myself,” he said. “We used to look at them from a distance and now we're part of that.

“We used to think that the thought of war and remembrance was being forgotten and in actuality, I think it's stronger than ever. Every year it keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

Lines of chairs held dozens of frail veterans, many of them bundled in blankets against a damp wind. Behind them at attention stood military guard units, Mounties, blocks of younger veterans and troops of cadets.

The Prime Minister's son, Ben, was in the cadet ranks.

John Babcock, at 108 the only surviving Canadian who was in uniform during the 1914-18 war, made a brief appearance by video, symbolically passing a torch of remembrance.

It marked Lt.-Col. John McCrae's famous line from In Flanders Fields: “To you, from failing hands, we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high.”

A real torch was handed to a veteran of the Second World War, who passed it to a Korean War vet. It was then passed to a retired peacekeeper in a United Nations blue blazer, and on to a soldier wearing the chocolate chip fatigues of the Afghan war.

The ceremony opened as the strains of O Canada rose under cold, grey skies, followed by the haunting bugle notes of the Last Post.

In her official Remembrance Day statement, the Governor-General paid tribute to the sacrifices of generations of soldiers.

“Let us honour the memory of every woman and man who has fought against tyranny and dictatorship. May this day serve to express our gratitude. respect and constancy.”

Just before the main service began, family members of other dead soldiers took part in a ceremony at the National Military Cemetery in Ottawa, placing wreaths at the graves

They were among many commemorations across the country and around the world.

In Afghanistan, the families of six Canadian soldiers gathered at the cenotaph inside the Canadian compound at Kandahar Air Field. The families laid wreaths emblazoned with the words “Fallen Soldier.”

Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson joined Canadian veterans, Prince Charles, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and thousands of others in a bone-chilling wind at a ceremony at a cemetery on the site of the Battle of Verdun, one of the bloodiest battlefields of the First World War.

“Huge crowds have come out to say 'Thank you' to Canadians and all those other nations that helped liberate France in both wars,” Mr. Thompson said.

In Halifax, Charlotte Lynn Smith, mother of another soldier killed in Afghanistan, laid a wreath at the Grand Parade cenotaph before hundreds of onlookers.

Pte. Nathan Smith of Ostrea Lake, N.S., was one of four Canadian soldiers killed when an American jet mistakenly dropped a bomb on them in April 2002.

Thomas Bradshaw, 89, a British army vet who survived three years of brutal Japanese captivity after the fall of Singapore in 1942, was at the Halifax ceremony.

“I had a little boy come up to me and thank me. It was very nice,” he said.

Services began in Newfoundland and Labrador shortly after dawn when veterans in St. John's laid a wreath at a new war memorial.

Premier Danny Williams later unveiled a plaque in St. John's to honour Canadians serving in Afghanistan.

A ceremony in Toronto began with the release of white doves and the playing of the Last Post in the veteran's section of Prospect Cemetery.

Another early ceremony saw teenage air cadets in Oshawa, east of Toronto, maintain an honour guard through the night at the city's cenotaph.

More than 100,000 Canadians have lost their lives in a century of wars, including almost 69,000 in the First World War, 47,000 in the Second World War, 517 in the Korean War, 112 in peacekeeping missions and 97 in Afghanistan.