Ivor Caplin spent his final overseas trip as a defence minister at a remembrance ceremony for First World War victims.

The former Hove and Portslade MP joined thousands of people in the Anzac Cove in southern Turkey to mark the 90th anniversary of the doomed Gallipoli campaign in which 21,000 British and Irish troops lost their lives.

Mr Caplin described the dawn service as one of the most moving ceremonies he had ever seen.

He said: "There were a lot of Australians (at the ceremony) but we were also reflecting on the thousands of British deaths we suffered at Gallipoli in what was one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War."

Among those attending yesterday's ceremony were Prince Charles, who read a psalm to the crowds, Australia's Prime Minister John Howard and New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark.

With the last of the veterans no longer present, the crowds were thronged by thousands of Australian and New Zealand backpackers.

Nearly one million soldiers fought in the trenches at Gallipoli. The Allies recorded 55,000 killed with 10,000 missing and 21,000 dead of disease. Turkish casualties were estimated at 250,000.

Anzacs, as the Australian and New Zealand forces who took part are known, formed the backbone of a 200,000-man, British-led army that landed at Gallipoli in an attempt to capture Istanbul, 180 miles to the east.

But poor co-ordination between the allies' naval and ground forces gave the Turks time to reinforce their positions. The allies ran into stiff resistance and ended up being evacuated from the peninsula in January 1916.

Mr Caplin, who surprised Labour Party members by deciding not to stand for re-election on May 5, said he was honoured to have served the UK as veterans' minister since 2003.