HONOR TO SERVE
Vets recall special ‘bond’ with Her Majesty
As they prepared to bid farewell to Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, British veterans reflected on the late monarch’s service to the nation.
Countless retired servicemen and women proudly displayed their military honors as they endured long hours in line to see the queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall. Many felt obliged to pay their respects.
“I came here wearing my Northern Ireland medal,” veteran Keith Walsh, who waited just under 10 hours to see the coffin, told The Post.
Walsh, 57, said he felt a deep sense of honor waiting in line for the better part of Friday.
“For veterans, first and foremost, we knew her as the boss. She was our boss — commander in chief of the armed forces. So there’s more than a tie of nationality to it,” Walsh said.
“We took an oath of allegiance to Her Majesty The Queen . . . and for most veterans, that oath will be there ’til the day you pass away . . . there’s that bond that we served for her.”
Lasting memory
Some of the veterans reflecting on Elizabeth’s 70-year reign had the rare pleasure of meeting her.
Lt. Gen. Sir Andrew Gregory, who served in the army for 35 years, said meeting the queen was something he will never forget.
Gregory, who is the CEO of the Soldiers, Sailors, and Families Association — a veterans aid organization of which Elizabeth was patron — said, “She came to open our central office the last time she formally visited the charity in 2013. Everyone remembers exactly where they were on that day and what they were doing.”
The queen’s involvement with the SSAFA dated back to her childhood when she and her sister, Princess Margaret, delivered honey from their own hives to the organization’s children’s home during World War II, Gregory said.
“When she married Prince Philip in 1947, they gave some of their wedding gifts to SSAFA,” Gregory explained. “For example, a collection of empire stamps was auctioned off, and the money went to charity.”
But Gregory’s experience with the late monarch didn’t end there. As master gunner of St James’s Park, “I’ve had the privilege of meeting [the queen] in that role,” he said.
“And on the 24th of October 2017, I had the honor of escorting her around as she reviewed the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, who provided the gun carriage which moved her majesty’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.”
“As I escorted her around, what struck me was her extraordinary ability to engage with young soldiers and their families and to make them feel really important. It was the most enormous privilege.”
Wing Commander Kirsty Bushell, who served in the Royal Air Force for 24 years, said, “We felt valued and seen . . . she listened very intently and understood she was making a memory for us at that time.”