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HRH The Prince of Wales leads the nation in the commemorations for VJ Day

Published Monday 22nd August 2005

Commemorations began with a procession of 30 standards carried by veterans [Pictures: Allan House & Ian Nelson]
Commemorations began with a procession of 30 standards carried by veterans [Pictures: Allan House & Ian Nelson]  HRH The Prince of Wales, Chief of Defence Staff General, Sir Michael Walker, and the Service Chiefs of Staff [Pictures: Allan House & Ian Nelson]
HRH The Prince of Wales, Chief of Defence Staff General, Sir Michael Walker, and the Service Chiefs of Staff [Pictures: Allan House & Ian Nelson]

The Prince of Wales and senior members of the Government and the Military laid wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall to mark the 60th Anniversary of Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day), on 21 August 2005.

The events began at 1100 hrs, when Vice Admiral Sir Roy Halliday KBE DSC, Chairman of the Trustees of the Burma Star Association, laid a wreath at the Memorial to Earl Mountbatten, on Foreign Office Green, accompanied by Earl Mountbatten's grandson, Lord Romsey.

At the same time, Viscount Slim laid a wreath at the Memorial to his father, Field Marshal Slim, on Raleigh Green, Whitehall, accompanied by his family.

A commemoration service was then held at the Cenotaph led by the Reverend Roy Day, a Burma Star Veteran, and attended by The Prince of Wales, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State for the Armed Forces Adam Ingram, Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Michael Walker, the Service Chiefs of Staff and Far East veterans' organisations.

The commemorations at the Cenotaph began with a procession of 30 standards, carried by veterans, who were preceded by pipers from the Irish Guards.

After the service, the pipers lead off the veterans and their standards, followed by the Gurkha Band and bugles of the Royal Green Jackets.  President of the Burma Star Association, Viscount Slim, said:

"The Burma Star is most grateful that they and all who fought and suffered in the Far East have been recognised and remembered."

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said:

"This year's commemorative events have enabled us to demonstrate to those who lived through the war at home and abroad that the sacrifices their generation made and the hardships they endured are still acknowledged, valued and appreciated.

"I know that these events have encouraged veterans to talk about their wartime experience, some for the first time, and pass on their own family's story to younger generations giving them the opportunity to keep these memories alive."

John Baxter, from the Children Of Far East Prisoners Of War, said:

"I am immensely proud of my father's wartime story.  This 60th Anniversary has been a very special year for us.  It is a great honour to have taken up the baton of remembrance as FEPOW [Far East Prisoners Of War] disbands and COFEPOW [Children Of Far East Prisoners Of War] takes on their mantle.

"With the opening of the FEPOW museum at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, we will ensure that they will never again be the 'forgotten army'."

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