Remembrance Sunday: Kate to make rare consecutive appearance to honour war dead

The Princess of Wales is set to carry out two consecutive days of public official engagements for the first time since the start of the year as she joins the King to commemorate the war dead on Remembrance Sunday.

In the wake of Kate completing a course of cancer treatment, the Prince of Wales said at the end of his visit to South Africa that he hoped to carry out overseas tours with the princess.

His hopeful comments come after he spoke candidly of how 2024 has been “brutal” and “probably been the hardest year in my life”, with his wife and his father both diagnosed with cancer.

Kate, who is in recovery, and Charles, who is still having treatment for the disease, also attended the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance on Saturday evening.

The King, who received a standing ovation and applause upon entering the Royal Albert Hall, was sitting next to the Princess Royal, with the Queen absent from the Festival and also due to miss Sunday’s Cenotaph ceremony to ensure she makes a full recovery from a chest infection, and to protect others from any risk.

Camilla, 77, pulled out of an Olympic and Paralympic reception at the Palace and the opening of the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey earlier this week after developing the seasonal respiratory bug following her long-haul tour to Australia and Samoa and spa break in India.

She is said to have dearly wanted to pay tribute in person to the nation’s fallen servicemen and women this weekend.

The service at the Cenotaph is an important fixture in the royal calendar and holds deep personal meaning for the Queen, through her official connections to the armed forces, and because of her late father Major Bruce Shand’s military service.

William sat next to Kate on Saturday evening, and the poppy-wearing pair got involved in the night’s music, applauding Sir Tom Jones and singing hymns as well as the national anthem.

As the Festival drew to a close, serving personnel gave three cheers to the King, who waved to the crowd after the anthem before joining his family in standing in silence as the Last Post was played and poppy petals fell from the ceiling.

On Sunday, in one of the annual ceremony’s most poignant moments, Charles will lead the nation in a two-minute silence to honour those who have died in conflict.

Members of the royal family will, together with senior politicians, lay wreaths during the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph to mark the Armistice of the First World War and all other conflicts involving British and Commonwealth forces.

The Royal British Legion’s veteran parade will see 10,000 veterans, representing 326 different armed forces and civilian organisations, march past the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London.

Thousands of people are expected to line Whitehall to take part in the two-minute silence.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in the Second World War and the 25th anniversary of the end of the war in Kosovo.

It also marks the 75th anniversary of Nato and the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale between the UK and France.

More than 800 sailors, soldiers and aviators will be on duty on Remembrance Sunday, representing their services at the Cenotaph and at commemorative services at Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral.

On Sunday Kate will watch, as is tradition, from above, on the nearby Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office balcony overlooking Whitehall, taking part in the solemn two-minute silence and viewing the veterans’ march past.

The princess, 42, has made just a handful of public appearances so far in 2024, after she underwent major abdominal surgery in January and then was diagnosed with cancer.

In a video the princess released in September, she revealed she had finished her chemotherapy treatment, and spoke of how she was “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months”.

But she added her focus was “doing what I can to stay cancer free”.

Of the Remembrance weekend, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the “courage and sacrifice of so many over the generations” brings the country together on Remembrance Day “in a spirit of the most profound gratitude and respect”.

While Defence Secretary John Healey said it was a “duty” to “educate future generations about their courage and commitment to defending Britain”.

According to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport “people of all ages” will be among those marching – from bereaved military children of the Scotty’s Little Soldiers charity through to D-Day veterans of the Spirit of Normandy Trust.