Kate’s sombre Cenotaph salute
THREE notable absentees were Prince harry, on a flying visit to British troops still in Kandahar, the Princess royal, who is on an official visit to North America, and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (the only ex-PM to be occupied elsewhere). One man who also regarded himself as a notable absence was the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage. Last week, he described the lack of an invitation as a ‘snub’ by the Westminster ‘closed shop’. It was, in fact, a question of numbers.
Under a 1984 convention agreed by the Queen, the Speaker of the Commons and the party leaders, only parties with six or more MPs are eligible to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph. Yesterday’s appearance by Elfyn Llwyd, leader of Plaid Cymru (which has just three MPs) was because he was representing both his own party and the SNP (which has six).
Once all wreaths had been laid, the Bishop of London conducted the traditional one-hymn service (O God Our help In Ages Past), supported by the Children of the Chapel royal. These are ten choirboys dressed in heavy scarlet uniforms dating back to the reign of Charles II (the choir itself goes back to 635AD and King Sigbert of the East Angles).
With the VIPs out of the way, the atmosphere switched from solemnity to swagger. The Massed Bands of the Guards Division struck up the old favourites – It’s A Long Way To Tipperary, Pack Up Your Troubles etc – and the 10,000 marchers did their best to mark time.
Every year, the parade is made up of seven columns while the honour of leading it rotates between different organisations. Pole position for 2014 had been granted to the royal Air Forces Association, but there was a last-minute change of plan – and quite right, too. Next week, the Normandy Veterans’ Association holds its final meeting.
having marked the 70th anniversary of D-Day with those heartbreaking commemorations back in June, the members of the 600strong association have decided to call it a day. While individual branches will continue to meet informally, the national organisation will cease to exist.
So, yesterday, pride of place went to the dwindling band of men who stormed the Normandy beaches and changed the course of history.
‘It’s time to say “Cheerio” and it means everything under the sun to do it like this,’ said the NVA Secretary, George Batts.
This year is also the 70th anniversary of the great airborne attempt to capture the bridge over the rhine at Arnhem. In addition to a handful of surviving Paras from that heroic but doomed operation, yesterday’s parade also included the same grateful Dutch contingent who are here, unfailingly every year under the banner of the Bond Van Wapenbroeders – ‘ the Bond of Brothers in Arms’.
On they all came, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (as instantly recognisable in their smart white macs as the King’s royal hussars in their unique livery of crimson trousers and brown berets.
here, too, were veterans of the Auxiliary Units, otherwise known as ‘Churchill’s Secret Army’.
Trained in secret at Coleshill, Wiltshire, these were the men who would have vanished in the event of a Nazi invasion to form the British resistance movement. As
saboteurs, their life expectancy would have been brief. Trevor Miners, 87, had travelled up with his sons from Cornwall, where he and his cell of Auxiliaries had once maintained a secret bunker, near Perranporth, full of guns and explosives.
‘Sadly, the land has been bulldozed now but I’m proud to say that, up until then, no one ever discovered it,’ he told me.
For more than 50 years after the war, the Auxiliaries remained a secret and never blabbed.
Now, their legacy is kept alive by the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team.
Leading them all on parade yesterday was actress Lucy Fleming. Her father, Peter, was instrumental in setting up the Auxiliaries while her uncle, Ian Fleming, incorporated some of their stories in to the antics of a certain James Bond. ‘ My father was always very secretive about his work,’ she said.
‘He would only refer vaguely to “doing his Red Indians”. But I’m incredibly honoured to be here in his memory.’
Parade done, these marchers usually adjourn to a favourite watering hole. But not this year. Many had a more pressing appointment. The pub will still be there next year. Those poppies at the Tower will not.