Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh share laughs with veterans at D-Day lunch

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh shared jokes with veterans and their families as they enjoyed a relaxed lunch before a service of remembrance was held to mark 80 years since D-Day.

Prince Edward and Sophie arrived at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire to meet 26 D-Day veterans, ranging in age from 96 to 104, ahead of a formal service to commemorate the anniversary.

Meeting veteran John Davies, who had attended the service with his granddaughter and great grandson, Sophie remarked: “You’re not!” when he told her he was 101.

As she chatted to Mr Davies, who had travelled from Liverpool for the occasion, she told him it was “lovely to have you here today”.

The royal also tenderly covered another chilly veteran with a blanket as they sat next to each other at a table.

Edward also met with veterans and their loved ones, asking them about their service and their memories of D-Day, saying it was a “pleasure” to meet them.

Asking one Derbyshire veteran where he had travelled from, he joked that Staffordshire was “much easier to get to than France”.

The couple laid a bunch of flowers and a wreath with a note saying “In Memoriam” on it after an hour-long service led by actress Lesley Sharp.

Ms Sharp paid tribute to her own father, who served in World War Two, and other veterans.

She said: “Today is a time for reflection and gratitude and it is a moment to honour the courage and resilience of those who served on that day and to pay tribute to their spirit in the face of unimaginable challenges.

“The legacy of D-Day transcends borders, ideologies and beliefs. Your presence here today is a testament to the enduring legacy of service and sacrifice.”

Mr Davies, who was 17 when he first went to sea, said he was “absolutely honoured” to be at the 80th memorial service and became tearful as he remembered the horrors he witnessed during his service.

He said: “Nothing like this should ever happen and that’s why people should remember and why they should be taught about what happened.

“Especially younger people now, unless they realise exactly what was given for them, it will keep happening.”

Phil Sweet, 99, who was in the Royal Navy, was part of the initial wave that landed at the village of La Riviere as part of the Gold Beach landings when he was 19.

He said: “I was on a tank landing craft, we had two tanks mounted on the tank deck to fire on the beach ahead of the first troops landing, but with the bad weather, it didn’t work out and we arrived a little bit later, so we hit the beach and offloaded our tanks close to La Riviere.

“We lost our drag anchor going in, so we went in on a very high tide and got stuck on the beach until the 19th and acted as a Prisoner of War camp before the prisoners were shipped out.”

Mr Sweet ended up becoming unwell with acute peritonitis and was in a tented hospital in Bayeux “with all the Canadian wounded”.

He said: “We didn’t really know what we were in for. I joined in the April, 16 weeks after I joined I was a naval officer and still hadn’t been on board a ship. I was drafted to a landing craft and did my training.

“Each of us had a job to do and if you’re doing it, you’re not concentrating on anything else. I suppose I was afraid as much as anyone else would have been, but there was a huge sense of camaraderie.”

Tom Hill, aged 98, who served in the Royal Marines between 1943 and 1946, became emotional as he remembered the “awful” scenes of ships being sunk and injured troops in the water after landing on Sword beach during the second wave on D-Day.