Military personnel heading into the latest Iraq conflict stand on the shoulders of their Anzac forebears, former prime minister John Howard has told the National Remembrance Day service.

Mr Howard reflected on Australia’s military role in combating Islamic State extremists as he gave the commemorative address to mark the 96th anniversary of the Armistice which ended World War I.

The latest mission was sparked by the sense of horror and outrage by those who sought to justify murder and destruction in the name of religion, he said.

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Mr Howard paid tribute to the extraordinary heroism and the great professional valour of Australia’s servicemen and women.

“Let us remember they stand on the shoulders of their Anzac forebears,” he told veterans, dignitaries, diplomats and spectators outside the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Tuesday.

Mr Howard spoke of the enormous pride he felt as prime minister from interaction with men and women from the defence force.

“They remain an absolute ornament to this country,” he said.

There was no hierarchy of sacrifice among Australia’s 102,000 war dead for they were recognised in equal measure.

Mr Howard’s voice quivered with emotion as he spoke of his personal connection to WWI.

His father and grandfather had served on the Western Front and were briefly reunited on the eve of the battle of Mont Saint-Quentin in France.

His father’s diary had the “remarkably laconic” entry against the date August 19, 1918: “Met Dad at Clery.”

“One wanders how those words could possibly encapsulate the feeling of a 45-year-old father of nine meeting his eldest child on the battlefield.”

The 96th anniversary of the Armistice also marks 100 years since the Great War began and comes ahead of the Anzac centenary in 2015.