Prince to lay Queen’s wreath

FOR the 65 years of her reign, with only a handful of exceptions, the Queen has led the nation in its Remembrance Sunday commemorations by laying a wreath at the Cenotaph.

However, this November, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will watch proceedings from a balcony as the Prince of Wales steps in to represent his mother.

The Queen has asked the Prince to take her place for the key moment of ceremony, in a significant change to tradition. Now 91, the Queen will instead join her 96-year-old husband on the balcony of the nearby Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

It is the first time the Prince will lay the wreath at the Cenotaph watched by his mother. It is only the sixth time the Queen has missed laying the wreath, while the Prince has undertaken the role once before, in 1983 while the Queen was on a tour of Kenya.

“The Queen wishes to be alongside the Duke of Edinburgh and he will be on the balcony,” a source said.