Prince praised for 50 years of service and dedication
THE ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury praised the Prince of Wales’s belief in the “sacred duty of service”, as the Royal family gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of his investiture.
The Most Rev Justin Welby paid tribute to Prince Charles’s “prophetic voice on the environment”, his work supporting disadvantaged young people and “concern” for the armed forces in a speech at a Buckingham Palace event hosted by the Queen.
The prince was surrounded by his immediate family at the reception, with the Prime Minister and leading figures from Wales also present, including the Falklands veteran Simon Weston, 57, a former Welsh Guardsman who suffered severe burns when the vessel Sir Galahad was attacked in 1982.
The Archbishop ranked Charles above all his other predecessors in terms of his service to others. “Never in the history of the role can there have been such dedicated service, such honourable fulfilling of the promise at the investiture, ‘I, Charles, Prince of Wales, do become your liege man of life and limb and of earthly worship, and faith and truth I bear unto you, to live and die against all manner of folks’,” he said.
HE COULD scarcely have imagined in 1969 that after half a century, he would remain the heir to the throne, but Prince Charles was nonetheless the recipient of a loyal show of anniversary support yesterday.
An eclectic gathering to mark the 50th anniversary of his investiture as Prince of Wales saw the Archbishop of Canterbury rubbing shoulders with the rock band Stereophonics, Game Of Thrones actor Owen Teale and others drawn from Welsh cultural and political life.
In an event hosted by the Queen, Charles had at his side his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, along with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – a symbolic gesture of support for the future king.
On July 1, 1969 it had been his parents who had been at his side at Caernarfon Castle as the bachelor prince was formally invested with the office that had been bestowed on him when he was nine. “The investiture was unique. Seldom can a coming-ofage have had such a setting; seldom can the weight of expectation have been so great,” said the Archbishop, Justin Welby. “In years since then, we have seen how the honour of being granted that title has been richly repaid – in the Prince of Wales’s love for the country whose name he bears, and in the deep respect he has always shown for the land, for the language, and most of all, of course, for the people.”
The Stereophonics frontman, Kelly Jones, said it was money from Charles’s flagship charity, the Prince’s Trust, that had helped his band take the first steps to stardom.
“We needed some money for some speakers and Prince Charles came down to Pontypridd and we met him and we had some funding,” Mr Jones said.
“Unfortunately the speakers got stolen by a bunch of builders a few months later, we had to get some more money, but yes, it was a very helpful start.”