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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were flushed by the stories in Churchill’s “secret” birthday message to their son as they chatted with World War II veterans about their memories of VE Day.
Champagne flowed when William and Kate made a video call Wednesday to residents of a nursing home in East Sussex to hear them remember the day the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945.
Residents had started their VE Day celebrations early and when asked by the royal couple what they would do when the Covid-19 outbreak was over, the cheery group said: Celebrate CV Day – “Victory over the coronavirus.”
William praised the wartime generation’s efforts and said, “Because we cannot be together, everyone still thinks of you today and is very proud of all that you have accomplished.”
(Image: BBC / Kensington Palace)
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Kate also revealed that her teachers asked Prince George and Princess Charlotte to learn Dame Vera Lynn’s famous anthem in wartime.
She said, “The school has been challenging for all the kids and they are currently trying to learn the lyrics for the song We Meet Meet Again … so it has been really lovely to have that playing every day.”
Meanwhile, with a glass of bubbly near Charles Ward, the oldest resident of Mais House, a Royal British Legion care home in Bexhill-on-Sea, joked about how he served a lot of rum to his fellow servicemen.
Ward, 101, had a varied military career during the war and after being first called to the London Irish Rifles, he then served in North Africa before joining the Special Operations Executive to encrypt or encrypt messages from British agents parachute in France. and Italy
(Image: BBC / Kensington Palace)
He joked about the day the war in Europe ended when he was a sergeant stationed in Greece.
“VE Day was very good, I had to turn around and give all the men a drink of rum,” he said with a laugh.
William replied, “I bet you were the hero of the time there Charles, giving rum to everyone.”
Ward, from South Kirkby in Yorkshire, said he told the Cambridges about working on “secret” messages from wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill.
He said: “The message came from Churchill. He had to decipher it, re-encrypt it, and send it to his son in Yugoslavia to say” Happy birthday. “
(Image: BBC / Kensington Palace)
“And then there was another of the son to Churchill himself to congratulate him on his speech in parliament.”
“When I told that story to William and Kate, they laughed.”
Residents began VE Day with a religious service performed by a minister on a balcony, to maintain the closing rules, before being entertained by a comedian and historian, in the character of Churchill, and enjoyed a lunch washed down with more champagne.
Mais House closed before the government issued social distancing decisions, remained virus-free and has been receiving supplies of personal protective equipment for staff, said Sue Barnes, the registered home manager.
(Image: BBC / Kensington Palace)
Resident James Pyett, 95, also spoke to royalty and said, “They said, ‘We’ve heard you’ve had some adventures during the Blitz.'”
The veteran’s family, who served as a driver for the Royal Corps of Signals during the war, were bombed outside their Limehouse home in London’s East End, but when they searched for refugees in Bournemouth they were again attacked by the Luftwaffe. .
The 95-year-old man said: “They exploited me and took me to the hospital and my father said ‘if we are going to be bombed here, we will go back to London.'”
Pyett said his family received a house in Clapham, south London, but within hours of moving out of his new property it was destroyed.
(Image: BBC / Kensington Palace)
“My mother was in the air raid shelter, but we were in the house when the house was bombed, the roof fell off and we were covered in dust and dirt,” he said.
“We went into the air raid shelter and my mother looked at my father and said ‘I knew we should have just stayed in Bournemouth.'”
The 95-year-old man was in the Netherlands on VE day, returning to the base of his unit in Ghent, Belgium, “when we returned we had a whale,” he said with a smile.
He added: “When William and Kate spoke to us, they asked us about the end of this period and we said that we would celebrate it as VE Day, but we will call it VC Day, Victory over the coronavirus.”
Jean Hull, 78, of Little Eaton in Derbyshire, was a young child on VE Day but went on to serve in Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service.
After talking to William and Kate, she said, “I was very young at the time, but I remember the celebrations, the masks the children were wearing were a bit like a Mickey Mouse mask and if you blew your nose hard, they thought it was pretty fun. “
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