LONDON: King Charles III led Britain in two minutes of silence on Sunday to honor the country’s war dead at a remembrance service also attended by Catherine, Princess of Wales, as she returns to royal duties after cancer treatment. The king, who was also diagnosed with cancer this year, was among the dignitaries laying wreaths at the Cenotaph memorial in central London after the nation fell silent at 11:00 am.
Crowds lined the Whitehall area of the capital as political leaders including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, current and former members of the armed forces, and war veterans paid their respects to Britons killed in the world wars and other conflicts. Catherine, wife of heir to the throne Prince William, watched the ceremony from a government building balcony as she stepped up her return to royal duties since ending chemotherapy in September.
The event came after she smiled and clapped alongside William at the Festival of Remembrance commemorative concert on Saturday night, the first major royal occasion she had attended since her treatment. The events, two of the most important dates in the royal calendar, marked the first time the princess had carried out two consecutive days of public official engagements this year.
Buckingham Palace announced in February that Charles, 75, had been diagnosed with an undisclosed cancer and would withdraw from public life to undergo treatment. The following month Kate, 42, revealed that she also had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. Both have since made limited returns to public duties, with Charles recently pausing his treatment while on tour in Australia and Samoa.
William said this week that the past year had been "brutal” and probably the "hardest” of his life because of the twin diagnoses. "Honestly, it’s been dreadful,” he told reporters on Thursday at the end of a four-day visit to South Africa for his Earthshot prize initiative. "So, trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult.”
Queen Camilla, Charles’s wife, missed the remembrance events due to a chest infection. Services took place across the United Kingdom, including in Belfast where Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’Neill became the first senior figure from the pro-Irish unity party Sinn Fein to attend a Remembrance Sunday service in the province. O’Neill said her attendance backed her commitment to "moving beyond old limits and building bridges”. Sinn Fein was the political wing of the paramilitary IRA during the Troubles — the three-decade sectarian conflict over British rule in Northern Ireland. — AFP