{"id":84907,"date":"2025-05-08T15:12:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/84907\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T15:12:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:12:35","slug":"duchess-of-edinburgh-marks-ve-day-thanksgiving-service-with-royal-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/84907\/","title":{"rendered":"Duchess of Edinburgh marks VE Day Thanksgiving Service with Royal Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, was present at a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to commemorate VE Day. <\/p>\n

The 60-year-old royal, wife of Prince Edward, observed flowers being laid at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. <\/p>\n

Sophie and Prince Edward joined The King and Queen, The Prince and Princess of Wales, The Princess Royal and Sir Tim Laurence, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and The Duke of Kent at the ceremony. <\/p>\n

They gathered with commemorate 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe, on May 8, 1945, when allied powers formally accepted Germany\u2019s unconditional surrender. <\/p>\n

\"Sophie,<\/p>\n

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh arrived Westminster Abbey to commemorate VE Day.<\/p>\n

Getty<\/p>\n

The Royal Family joined the Westminster Abbey congregation for a two-minute silence of remembrance observed across the country.<\/p>\n

King Charles and the Prince of Wales will also lay flowers at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at the ceremony. <\/p>\n

The Duchess of Edinburgh will also witness a reflective reading by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. <\/p>\n

Veterans of Britain\u2019s most destructive conflict will also be present at Westminster Abbey.<\/p>\n

\"Sophie,<\/p>\n

Sophie joined other royals at the Thanksgiving Service <\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

Before departing, Queen Camilla will lead the Royal Family in laying flowers at the Innocent Victims\u2019 Memorial, outside the Abbey\u2019s West Door. <\/p>\n

Sophie is closely connected to Britain\u2019s armed forces and military service through her husband, who holds eight military appointments. <\/p>\n

The Duke of Edinburgh is Royal Honorary Colonel of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry and The London Guards. <\/p>\n

In 2007, The Edward was made Royal Colonel of 2nd Battalion The Rifles after Britain\u2019s infantry was restructured.<\/p>\n

\"Sophie,<\/p>\n

Sophie met veterans at Westminster Abbey<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

\"Sophie,<\/p>\n

Sophie has close ties to Britain’s armed forces through her husband<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

He also makes regular visits to the Battalion\u2019s HQ in Northern Ireland and has met them while on operational duties <\/p>\n

This has included their tours in Afghanistan in 2009, for which Sophie accompanied him, and most recently in Estonia where they are part of a NATO contingent facing down potential Russian aggression. <\/p>\n

Edward has also been appointed Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in 2006 and in 2008, was granted the title of Honorary Air Commodore of Royal Air Force Waddington. <\/p>\n

In his youth, the Duke of Edinburgh spent three years in the Royal Marines as a University Cadet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, was present at a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to commemorate VE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,5106,1102,4884,5105,712,16,15,978],"class_list":{"0":"post-84907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-duchess-of-edinburgh","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-royal","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114472861364414020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}