Royals lead nation's tributes to wartime heroes at VE Day service in Westminster Abbey
8 May 2025, 13:13 | Updated: 8 May 2025, 15:40
The Royal Family joined veterans and politicians at Westminster Abbey today for a national service of thanksgiving marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
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The live televised service got under way with a national two-minute silence in honour of those who made sacrifices during the conflict, both at home and overseas.
The King and the Prince then laid wreaths of seasonal flowers, which would have been in bloom in May 1945, at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. The monarch did so on behalf of the nation and the Commonwealth, and the Prince for the veterans and the wartime generation, with 99-year-old Ken Hay, who served in the 4th Dorset infantry regiment, at their side.
The King was in a lounge suit with medals and neck order and the Queen, a white crepe silk dress and coat by Anna Valentine, with a black and white hat by Phillip Treacy and as Colonel-in Chief of the Royal Lancers, a brooch of the 12 Lancers.
Prince William was also in a lounge suit with a household division tie and Great Master of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath Neck Order. He was also wearing his jubilee and coronation medals.
The Princess wore an Alessandra Rich dress with a hat by Juliette Botterill and earrings that belonged to her late mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales.
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The Royal family stood with the congregation as Second World War artefacts including a gas mask and an air raid warden’s helmet, representing the armed forces and the Home Front, were placed near the High Altar.
Amid the hymns, wartime anthems formed the soundtrack to the anniversary commemorations with The White Cliffs Of Dover sung by Zizi Strallen and When The Lights Go On Again (All Over The World) played by the RAF band.
It will conclude with a rendition of We’ll Meet Again, a song made famous by forces’ sweetheart the late Dame Vera Lynn, and channelled in 2020 by Elizabeth II in her televised address to the nation at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The music will also include Hubert Parry's Songs Of Farewell, which was sung at the late Queen's state funeral.
On VE Day, the then-Princess Elizabeth, just 19, secretly celebrated among the crowds who gathered on the streets of London with sister Princess Margaret, jubilant that peace had come to Europe after Nazi Germany's surrender.
A setting of words from Psalm 46 by Sir John Rutter, which was composed specially for a service to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day in 2020 that was unable to go ahead due to the Covid-19 lockdown, will be performed for the first time on television today.
An extract of Sir Winston's VE Day speech will be played in the church, and actor Josh Dylan will read a moving letter by Fredrick Burgess, a serving soldier on the front line, written to his seven-year-old son.
Lance Corporal Burgess' granddaughter Susan was among those listening in the abbey.
The servicemen had expressed how proud he was of his son, telling him: "When I do come home, and it will not be very long now, I'm going to buy you something extra specially nice for being such a good boy."
He described the rain in Italy and how his small tank, which he named Freddie II after his son, had been damaged with a "whacking big hole" by a bomb.
Dylan revealed: "Seven months after writing this letter, Lance Corporal Burgess was killed."
Actress Nina Sosanya will share a letter written by Janet Thornton to her young daughters on VE Day, and Cadet Warrant Officer Bethan Holmes will read from the memoir of Joan Broome, a 15-year-old girl, of her experience of VE Day in LondonSome 78 veterans are expected to attend alongside Sir Keir, who will give a Bible reading.
