In 100th year of the Cenotaph, Queen’s tears for war dead
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She was a princess when she laid her first wreath at the Cenotaph. As a veteran herself – and, indeed, the only head of state in the world today who served in the Second World War – the Queen knows this ceremony better than anyone.
Yet, for her, it remains as poignant as ever. hence, the tear gently making its way down the royal cheek yesterday as she led the nation in tribute to all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
Flanked by the Duchesses of Cornwall and Cambridge, the Queen looked on from a balcony as the Prince of Wales placed her wreath on the Cenotaph before laying his own tribute. Stretching into the distance, veterans and families from every strand of the Armed Forces lined up to do the same.
This year marks the 100th anniversary not only of the Cenotaph itself but of the two-minute silence at 11am. Both were introduced by George V in 1919, a mere seven years before the Queen’s birth.
Very little has changed since. Not once did the Queen – wearing her traditional five-stemmed poppy – even glance at the order of service for this ceremony, knowing every word of every hymn and prayer.
her only other words, according to lip-reading spectators, concerned the weather. ‘Isn’t it freezing?’ the Duchess of Cornwall observed just before the start. ‘Quite bracing,’ added the Duchess of Cambridge. ‘ It’s cold enough,’ the Queen concurred.
On the adjacent balcony, the Duchess of Sussex joined the Countess of Wessex and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. Down below, all the Queen’s children, along with her grandsons, the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, and her cousin, the Duke of Kent, stood smartly to attention in their uniforms. The wreath of the Duke of edinburgh, now aged 98 and retired from public life, was laid by his equerry.
Less well-trained, however, were the political contingent. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, set off to lay his wreath too early, ran into an ear-splitting military command to ‘Stand At – ease!’ and hastily shuffled back to his position before having a second go.
FOurbalconies along from the monarch’s position, Mr Johnson’s girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, appeared in a respectful blue coat and hat, standing alongside Lord Bilimoria, patron of the uK Zoroastrian Parsi community, and other faith representatives.
Twice during the half-hour service, however, she disappeared inside for several minutes. Downing Street declined to comment.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, had certainly made a greater effort with his appearance than on previous occasions. Last year’s much-criticised red tie and anorak had been replaced by a dark blue tie and smart overcoat (which, unlike the Prime Minister’s, was also done up). Mr Corbyn’s lips were certainly moving during both the Lord’s Prayer and the national anthem. Come the wreath-laying, however, his neck remained as stiff as ever, prompting the usual did he?/didn’t he? online debate about whether his micro-inflexion of the head qualified as a bow or not.
Given that this has become an annual issue and that he is in the middle of an election campaign, it would surely have done no harm to give an unequivocal nod to the ‘Glorious Dead’. Yet he did not.
The Labour leader had already attracted criticism for his no-show at Saturday night’s Festival of remembrance at the royal Albert hall. While the Prime Minister sat alongside members of the royal Family, the Labour Party was represented by the shadow foreign secretary, emily Thornberry. Mr Corbyn’s officials later said that he had been waylaid meeting flood victims in Yorkshire.
For this centenary service, there had been a number of changes to the usual running order, correcting a few historic oversights. All the uK’s dependent territories, including Bermuda, the Falkland Islands and the Cayman Islands, had been invited to send a representative to lay a wreath ahead of the rest of the Commonwealth. Previously, their role would be recognised collectively in a single wreath laid on their behalf by the Foreign Secretary. here for the first time, too, was the Nepalese ambassador. Nepal, famously, was never subsumed into the British empire and thus has never joined the Commonwealth.
For more than two centuries, however, the British Army has been grateful for the heroism of Nepalese Gurkhas in almost every major conflict. henceforth, the Nepalese ambassador will take part in this event every year, as the Irish ambassador has done since 2014. The formalities over, the