King ‘looking forward’ to VE Day events to thank wartime generation for service
Charles and Camilla will lead the nation at events to mark the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.
The King and Queen are said to be looking forward to this week’s events to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day and to remember the “selfless devotion, duty and service” of the wartime generation.
Charles and Camilla will lead the nation at events to mark the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, which begin on Monday with a military procession through central London.
Second World War veterans and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will join senior royals on a platform on the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace to watch the procession.
Members of the royal family are expected to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the RAF flypast before the King and Queen host a tea party for veterans and members of the Second World War generation.
The King and Queen, joined by other members of the royal family, will attend a thanksgiving service with veterans at Westminster Abbey on May 8 to mark the day of the anniversary.
In the evening, the royal couple will be at Horse Guards Parade for a celebratory concert where Second World War veterans are expected to be among more than 12,500 guests.
A Buckingham Palace aide said: “The King, Queen and other members of the royal family are much looking forward to all the week’s VE Day events, when they will unite with the rest of the nation and those across the Commonwealth and wider world in celebrating, commemorating and giving thanks to the wartime generation whose selfless devotion duty and service should stand as an enduring example to us all – and must never be forgotten.”
Large crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace on VE Day in 1945 to catch a glimpse of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.
The young Princess Elizabeth sneaked out into the streets to join the celebrating crowds and later spoke of being swept up in a “tide of happiness and relief”.
Following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022, this year will be the first landmark VE Day commemoration without any of the royals who stood on the balcony that day.
The VE Day anniversary events come after the Duke of Sussex said his father, the King, does not speak to him in a BBC interview broadcast after Harry lost the latest round in his court battle over security.
Charles is being treated for cancer and, in the same interview, the duke also said he does not know “how much longer my father has” left.
It is understood that the royal household want the focus to return to the family’s official engagements now and hope ‘nothing will detract or distract from celebrating with full cheer and proud hearts that precious victory and those brave souls, on this most special and poignant of anniversaries’.
