Royals lead VE Day celebrations and forget Prince Harry for a day

As the slimmed down royal family waved from the balcony, the two members to have served on the front line in recent conflicts were absent – but with Louis stealing the show, did anyone notice?

At the beginning of the year, the events to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day were flagged as one of the highlights of the royal calendar.

It featured a bank holiday flypast, the royal family gathered to amplify the voices of the few surviving veterans, and a military procession to thank those who had made the ultimate sacrifice and those who had survived but with the scars to show for it.

So Friday’s outburst from the Duke of Sussex in an exclusive interview with the BBC was not the ideal precursor to what is likely to be the last commemoration of the end of the Second World War that hosts a significant number of surviving veterans.

Prince Harry told the broadcaster that he was “gutted” to have lost his three-year legal battle against the Home Office to reinstate his police protection when in the UK.

He then appeared to blame the establishment, and his father, and even take aim at those members of his family who could not find it in their heart to forgive him for the revelations laid out in his best-selling autobiography.

(From L to R) Princess Anne, King Charles III, Queen Camilla, Prince William, Prince George, Prince Louis, Catherine, Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte wave to crowds from Buckingham Palace balcony. Picture; AFP.

Not unreasonably, the Palace was anxious that any discussion about Harry should take a day off for fear that his Hollywood sound bites might overshadow a special day for the surviving veterans.

In the end, the courtiers need not have worried. All the kings, queens and princes in the world — whether in overcast Britain or the sunny uplands of Montecito, California — could not have outshone the medals of those still alive to bear witness to the past.

There was Alan Kennett, 100, who joined the RAF aged 18 and who gave permission in Parliament Square for Monday’s military procession to start.

There was Bernard Morgan, 101, an RAF codebreaker who showed the Princess of Wales his old pictures as they chatted like old friends before watching the 1,300-strong military parade move its dignified way up the Mall.

And there was Douglas Cracknell, 99, who was starring in his own BBC exclusive. In a recorded interview, he told the Queen about the bitter battle for Hill 112 during the Normandy campaign. “We lost a lot of men and I lost all me mates,” he said.

He said he had narrowly avoided being shot in the face when he came under attack from enemy forces. How did he survive? By following the advice of his father, who told him to “keep your head down”.

Keeping his head down is the advice that the royal family might wish to impart to Prince Harry. Or at least it would be if they thought it was possible to have a private conversation that wouldn’t be aired on a major television network.

King Charles III speaks with a Second World War veteran during a tea party at Buckingham Palace. Picture: AFP.

However, military events seem to highlight the absence of the duke more than any other time.

As the slimmed-down royal family took to the balcony of Buckingham Palace to commemorate the victory of Britain and her allies, the two members of the royal family to have served on the front line in recent conflicts were absent.

The Duke of York, who served in the Royal Navy during the Falklands War, will forever be tarnished by his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Duke of Sussex, who served not one but two tours of duty in Afghanistan, has quit his royal role.

His comment in last week’s interview that he “doesn’t know how long” his father has left to live is aggravating for the palace.

Usually optimistic about the King’s health, courtiers have been as open as they feel they can about the King’s ongoing cancer treatment. The facts, they say, speak for themselves: the King is keeping up with a full diary of national and international engagements.

When asked how he is doing, the King has been known to quote the wartime prime minister Winston Churchill by saying that he “keeps buggering on”.

But for all his stoicism, there is no hiding the fact that he is an emotional man.

Princess Catherine speaks with a Second World War veteran as King Charles III arrives to sit at the table during a tea party at Buckingham Palace. Picture; AFP.

When the King stood on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the first major commemoration of VE Day during his reign, he looked deeply moved as the massed bands of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force gathered in the forecourt below to play the national anthem.

The King echoed the past to link the royal family to the wider military family and the rest of the nation. He chose the naval uniform No 1 dress with no medals, the same uniform worn by his grandfather King George VI on VE Day in 1945.

Similarly, his sister the Princess Royal wore the same uniform of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal’s Volunteer Corps) as their mother, the late Queen, when she stood on the balcony on VE Day in 1945 as Princess Elizabeth.

Later this week, the King will use his grandfather’s words to reflect on the sacrifices of British troops and those of her allies. There will also be signposts to the future.

On the balcony, the working members of the royal family were joined by the children of the Prince and Princess of Wales: Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 10 and Prince Louis, 7, who tapped his fingers along to the music.

The military fly past passes over The Mall and Buckingham Palace at the end of the procession for the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Picture; Getty Images.

Louis was seen enjoying the day, dancing and craning his head to catch a better view of the planes overhead during the flypast. Earlier, Louis appeared to send up his brother George, copying him by flicking his hair in the same way.

For the first time at an official engagement of this nature, George joined his parents at a palace tea party, where he spent time talking to veterans.

When it came to royal duties, the King has said he “learnt the way a monkey learns — by watching its parents”. Perhaps he has shared these thoughts with his grandson.

For the palace, it was a way of pointing towards a brighter future. For the veterans, it was the same — a chance to pass on their stories to future generations “lest we forget”.

With a frail voice, one veteran told George it was “very important” for him to attend because “there aren’t many of us left”. Surely the young prince had no doubt as to who was the star of the show.