King Charles is set to play a major role in the Remembrance Sunday and Festival of Remembrance this weekend, but a recent moment with a former soldier left the monarch rather emotional
King Charles and Queen Camilla were “left in tears” after an unexpected emotional moment from a guest at a remembrance service. The King is set to lead the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph on Sunday.
As head of the Armed Forces, the King is said to find Remembrance Sunday “very important”. Both his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, served in the military, as did his grandfather King George VI.
The King and Queen regularly show their respects to soldiers who have served in conflict. In August they attended the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. It was there that former soldier Yavar Abbas, aged 105, brought a tear to the King’s eye.
Mr Abbas, originally from Lucknow in India, was a captain in the 11th Sikh Regiment. At the VJ Day commemoration service in August, he was set to read extracts from his diary recalling his time in Burma in 1945, but instead, turned to address the “brave king”.
Recalling the emotional moment on Radio 2, presenter Paddy O’Connell said: “One of them made the King and Queen cry recently. Yavar Abass is going to be 105. He joined the British Indian Army and he went off-script at the National Memorial Arboretum to celebrate the end of the Second World War.
“I was there and the BBC people were going, ‘Oh, what is he going to say’, and he said, ‘I’m going to salute my King who is here in front of me today, who would make his grandfather proud’. Both the King and Queen were reduced to tears.”
Speaking during the VJ Day service, Mr Abbas paid tribute to the King for continuing his work while undergoing cancer treatment. He said: “I make no apologies for briefly going off the script to salute my brave King, who is here with his beloved Queen in spite of the fact that he is under treatment for cancer.”
Applause rang out among the crowd of around 1,500 guests as Mr Abbas said he had also battled cancer, adding that he hoped it would bring “comfort” that he had been rid of the disease himself for 25 years.
He added: “I salute him for gracing this occasion, because by his presence here, he has gone a long way to make sure that his grandad’s 14th Army is never given the sobriquet again of The Forgotten Army.”
Mr Abbas told the Royal British Legion that he was a “radical Nationalist student” at the outbreak of the Second World War. He says he believed India should be a completely independent country.
Having enlisted, initially in a garrison battalion, he later trained as a combat cameraman, and was sent to the front lines in Burma, “armed with a pistol and a Vinten film camera”. He captured the devastating aftermath of the Battles of Imphal and Kohima, the crossing of the Irrawaddy and the Battle of Mandalay in early 1945.
He said: “I was defending democracy and freedom and everything that is good and noble about humanity! I didn’t put it in those terms at that time, but that must have been my driving force. I was proud to be in the army. I still am proud of what I did”.
As well as leading the ceremony at the Cenotaph this weekend, the Royal Family will appear at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday. This year’s show will feature performances from the likes of Sir Rod Stewart, Blessing Offor, Sam Ryder, Keala Settle and The Wellermen.
