SOLEMN SALUTE
The Duke of Sussex salutes on a visit to the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey. During the event, which has been held annually since 1928, the Duke was given a marigold in memory of 1.3m Indian servicemen who served in the First World War.
THE AIR was rich with symbolism at Westminster Abbey, in whose nave lies the grave of the unknown warrior, as the Duke of Sussex entered the Field of Remembrance and took the salute.
Created a decade after the Armistice in the cathedral’s towering shadow, its 370 plots, representing regiments, military organisations and other bodies, are covered with thousand upon thousand of small wooden crosses. Among the sea of poppies were also marigolds – India’s symbol of its war dead – and as Harry passed by, Suraj Samant, from the Hindu Council, handed him one.
“His elder brother and his father both put a wreath of marigolds down at India Gate at New Delhi to commemorate [India’s fallen] so I thought it was poignant to also offer His Royal Highness a marigold,” said Mr Samant, whose plot represented India’s First World War forces.
The Duke, a former Army officer, said he would like to include one of the flowers in the wreath he will lay at the Cenotaph on Sunday, when he joins the Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge, the Prime Minister, Cabinet members and other national figures as the nation falls silent on the centenary of the end of the First World War.
Some 1.3 million Indian servicemen were involved in the conflict, and 74,000 were killed.
Mr Samant said Harry had spoken of the sacrifice during their brief exchange in the Abbey garden.
“He said he’d add a couple of marigolds into his wreath that he puts down at the Cenotaph if he had the choice,” he said.
“I think he recognises that sacrifice himself. It’s not a small number we’re talking about.”
As the Field of Remembrance was opened, Harry left his own miniature cross and a bugler sounded the Last Post before a minute’s silence was observed. Among those present was Sarah Jones, president of the Royal British Legion Poppy Factory and widow of Lt Col Herbert Jones, known as “H”, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross after the Falklands war. The Poppy Factory produces the wooden crosses for the memorial each November. In its first year, only two were planted, but the number has grown to around 70,000. Veterans, as well as members of the public, are invited to plant crosses in the Abbey grounds in memory of fallen comrades and loved ones.
Yesterday, they included John Kinsella, 54, who had come from a nearby building site and was wearing a poppy on his hard hat.
Last month he had travelled to Belgium with his brothers to visit the grave of their great grandfather, Thomas Kinsella, who had died just a few weeks before the Armistice.
“We went to give him the service he didn’t have 100 years ago,” he said as he shook the Duke’s hand.