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Prince Charles leads tributes to war dead on Remembrance Sunday Prince Charles leads tributes to war dead on Remembrance Sunday
(about 4 hours later)
The Prince of Wales has led the nation in honouring Britain’s war dead on Remembrance Sunday, as the Queen observed the service from a balcony. The Queen appeared to wipe a tear from her eye on Sunday as she stood on the balcony of the Foreign Office watching her son lay the wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph on her behalf for the first time.
The Queen asked Charles to lay her wreath at the Cenotaph; it is the first time the monarch has broken with tradition and not performed the symbolic duty when at the Whitehall service. On a bright but raw morning, the eyes of the crowds packed 10-deep along Whitehall, and the thousands of veterans and civilians waiting to march past, kept turning to the Queen and Prince Philip, heads bowed, watching the ceremony in which for so many decades they had played a central role. The Queen appeared moved, contemplative, even anxious.
A two-minute silence was held at 11am and wreaths were laid at the foot of the Whitehall memorial by senior royals and political leaders including the prime minister, Theresa May, and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. The Duke, who retired from formal duties three months ago at the age of 96, occasionally leaned slightly against the side of the balcony for support. For decades, as he stood tall between his sons and grandsons, his had been the straightest back on Whitehall. The Queen turned a fraction at one point to exchange a few words with him.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh watched the service from a Foreign and Commonwealth Office balcony. It was the first time in his 68 years that Prince Charles has taken on the ceremonial duty when his mother was present: she has missed the ceremony twice when she was pregnant, and on four occasions when she was out of the country on state visits, but she has never before attended as an onlooker.
The Cenotaph ceremony is a poignant event in the life of the nation, which normally involves the Queen leading the country in remembering those who have died in world wars and other conflicts, so Charles’s role in laying the wreath was a significant moment. This time, after the two-minute silence began with the comfortingly familiar bong of Big Ben, re-activated for the occasion from its hibernation during the restoration work on the Elizabeth tower, and ended with the echoing boom of a field gun fired from Horse Guards Parade, Prince Charles laid his mother’s wreath under her gaze. He then stepped back to allow the Duke’s equerry, Captain Ben Tracy, to lay one on behalf of his father, then returned to lay his own wreath with the white flowers in the form of Prince of Wales feathers.
Buckingham Palace announced the change last month, which is seen as part of the subtle shift of head of state duties from the Queen to the heir to the throne. The recent political turmoil has been nerve-wracking for the organisers of the ceremony, uncertain until the last moment which government members would still be in place. In the event Theresa May was still prime minister, her face and her thoughts almost hidden by a large hat, and Boris Johnson was still foreign secretary, sharing his order of service with the culture secretary, Karen Bradley, since apparently neither knew the words by heart of Oh God Our Help in Ages Past – although Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn clearly did.
Earlier this year, Philip, 96, retired from his solo public duties, but on occasion has joined the Queen at her official engagements. With the 11th November, the actual anniversary of Armistice Day, and Remembrance Sunday falling in the same weekend this year, many towns and villages held their services on Saturday.
Philip’s equerry laid his wreath, while Charles also laid his own wreath. The Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, the Princess Royal and the Duke of Kent also laid wreaths. In Liverpool a special service at St George’s hall featured Joey, the giant puppet from the play Warhorse. The event marked the centenary of Passchendaele, a series of battles fought in Flanders between July and November 1917 in weather that turned the terrain into a swamp of mud: the true casualty figures were never established, but about 500,000 German and Allied troops are believed to have been killed or injured.
Other political figures laying wreaths included the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, the Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, and the House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow. In Wales a day-long motor racing event on Anglesey was paused for the two-minute silence and a remembrance ceremony. The races were organised by Mission Motorsport which uses racing as part of rehabilitation for physically or mentally injured veterans, including helping those with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Joining the Queen in observing the service from Foreign Office balconies were the Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Countess of Wessex, Princess Alexandra, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence. At the Field of Remembrance at Cardiff Castle, one of six created across the UK by the British Legion, more than 10,000 crosses have now been laid.
The firing of a gun marked the end of the silence, and the Last Post was sounded by the Buglers of the Royal Marines before the wreaths were laid. In Bristol a 21-year-old man was held by police for several hours and then freed on condition he writes a letter of apology to the British Legion, after being caught urinating on the Cenotaph in the city centre in the small hours of Sunday morning. The Remembrance Day ceremony was returning to the Cenotaph this year, after roadworks in the area forced it to be moved last year.
Charles has laid a wreath before on behalf of the Queen, in 1983 when she was out of the country, and when the Queen was in South Africa in 1999 she laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in Durban. In Folkestone part of the town centre was cordoned off after a loud explosion was heard just after the two-minute silence. Karl Coyle, a former serviceman with the Royal Anglian regiment, who ran towards the scene followed by several Gurkha veterans who had also been attending the parade, told Kent Live it was caused by an electrical fault that blew off a manhole cover.
This year marks the centenaries of women’s service in the regular armed forces, the Battle of Passchendaele and the creation of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, as well as the 100th birthday of forces’ sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn.
It also marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein and the creation of the RAF Regiment.