Kate: It’s fantastic to still honour heroes
THE Duchess of Cambridge lights up the screen with two costars – a 98-year-old veteran and a 10-year-old Cub Scout – for a new film about remembrance.
In the film, to mark the Royal British Legion’s centenary, Kate meets Cub Emily Edge and awards her with a new Scouts’ badge as a thank-you for creating a poppy display for a church.
Then she brings together two different generations by introducing Emily to Colonel David Blum, who fought at Monte Cassino.
Colonel Blum, the highest-ranking veteran of the Italy campaign in the Second World War, speaks about his selection for officer training at Sandhurst.
Kate tells him: “It was probably a lot tougher then than when my husband did it but I’ve heard a lot about Sandhurst.” Colonel Blum, from Staines, Surrey, replies: “It had its moments.”
The war veteran, who holds the Italy Star, recalls: “I lost a few friends. One was killed a day or two before the war ended. You wrote to their families, to say how sorry you were to have to tell them.” He adds: “There are fewer and fewer people around now who I’m able to share memories with.
“It’s a fact that when you get to 98, as I am, they’ve mostly gone.”
Relevant
Emily, of Wistaston, Cheshire, says: “It’s important to remember the servicemen and women who risked or sacrificed their lives so we can live freely and happily.”
She tells Kate, joint president of The Scout Association, what
she know about the role Scouts played during the war, including helping with the evacuations from cities as well as taking part in fire watches and harvests.
The Duchess, who will be at the Festival of Remembrance tonight and the Cenotaph tomorrow, says of never forgetting: “It’s fantastic that an idea that was initiated then is still relevant today.”
The Duchess invited them to chat at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, when the video now on YouTube, was filmed.