King pays special tribute to Australian and New Zealand forces on Anzac Day
The Princess Royal will attend a dawn service for the Australian and New Zealand troops who fell in Gallipoli in north-west Turkey in 1915.
The King paid a special tribute to Australian and New Zealand forces who fell during the Gallipoli landings in 1915 as dawn broke on Anzac Day.
Services took place as the sun rose across the two nations on Friday marking the 110th anniversary of the ill-fated assault on the peninsula in north-west Turkey during the First World War.
Troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps – shortened to Anzac – landed on the western shore of the Gallipoli peninsula on April 25 1915 as part of the failed campaign that lasted into 1916.
Later, the Princess Royal will represent the royal family in person at a dawn service at Anzac Cove where those landings took place more than a century ago.
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Edinburgh will take part in the annual Anzac Day commemorations held in London, joining Australians and New Zealanders for a dawn service at the Australian War Memorial at Hyde Park Corner, a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph and later a Westminster Abbey service of commemoration and thanksgiving.
In a message on social media Charles, who attended the dawn service in Gallipoli on Anzac Day in 2005 and 2015, said he wanted to pay a special tribute to Australian and New Zealand veterans, and those who are on active service today.
“Through the generations, you have continued to enact the indomitable spirit of Anzac – forged in terrible conflict and preserved in peace – of courage, mateship and sacrifice,” he said.
More than 100,000 troops died in the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War by the UK and allies to capture the Dardanelles Strait.
The assault in 1915 was intended to wound the then Ottoman Empire and cut off a key connecting water route between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea, a move which would have also aided Russia.
Many from Australia and New Zealand have travelled to Turkey to take part in anniversary services.
Anne attended services across Gallipoli on Thursday and laid wreaths for the fallen of several nationalities, including the UK and Ireland, France and Turkey.
Later she met New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon as well as senior political figures and diplomats during a reception at the Kolin Hotel in Canakkale.
During speeches, Anne hailed Turkish friends and emphasised the importance of passing on the tradition of remembering those who have fallen in war.
She quoted Turkish hero Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, saying: “There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours.
“You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this island, they have become our sons as well.”
Anne described words such as these as having “paved the way for ferocious battles that took place on this land to be replaced by long-lasting friendships and strong alliances that we must take forward to the future”.
