Prince William to Step in for King Charles at Special D-Day Commemorations in France
The Prince of Wales will be in Normandy, France, with other heads of state, while Charles and Queen Camilla are at a separate event
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Prince William is stepping up as an international statesman.
The Prince of Wales will represent his father King Charles at a key D-Day commemoration in Normandy, north-east France next week.
William, 41, is set to be the senior U.K. figure at a gathering of 25 world leaders at Omaha beach, Saint Laurent sur Mer, on the 80th anniversary of the landings on June 6. The ceremony will honor the estimated 160,000 American, British and Canadian troops who landed at the beach on D-Day.
The battles on D-Day of June 6, 1944, and in the weeks that followed, pushed the German forces back from the coast and across France and were among the most important in bringing about the end of the Second World War, which ended almost a year later.
As well as being alongside international heads of state, William will join D-Day veterans and attend the the Canadian commemorative ceremony at the Juno Beach Centre, Courseulles-sur-Mer, hosted by the Canadian government, Buckingham Palace has announced.
William expected to travel to France solo, as his wife Kate Middleton, 42, is still not undertaking public duties as she undergoes her cancer treatment.
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OLI SCARFF - WPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES
Charles, 75, and Queen Camilla, 76, will be in Normandy for the celebrations but will be at a separate event marking the British memorial.
President Joe Biden will also be in France, while French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy would also be taking part in the commemorations, the Associated Press reported.
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The event is the latest step for William in his burgeoning international role. As heir to the throne, he has to navigate the difficult terrain of appealing to politicians and decision-makers while not overstepping the mark and becoming party-political on the world stage.
In the past, he has urged President Xi Jinping in China to join the ban on the illegal trade in endangered wildlife and deftly taken part in diplomatic visits to Israel and Pakistan.
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"In his early 20s, I always had to pinch myself to remind me that he was still a very young man. He already had an extraordinary maturity," Charlie Mayhew, CEO of the Tusk Trust charity previously told PEOPLE. "That, I suppose, comes with a knowledge of his destiny. He has developed into a really valuable statesman for this country and for conservation and the environment."
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The events in France are among a set of special occasions to mark the bravery and sacrifices of those who took part in the historic landings. Other members of the Royal Family will take part in celebrations in the U.K. too.
It is part of a busy period of public outings for the King and his family. The following week will see the annual birthday parade or Trooping the Colour, followed by the Order of the Garter ceremony and Royal Ascot horse races, which start on June 20.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/king-charles-accepted-award-from-nazi-veteran-peter-savaryn/
KING CHARLES ACCEPTED AWARD FROM NAZI VETERAN
Prince Charles receives honorary degree from Nazi veteran Peter Savaryn. (Photo obtained by Hunter Pauli for Declassified UK)
A photograph has been discovered of the then Prince Charles receiving an award from a former member of the Waffen-SS.
Charles was given an honorary law degree during a ceremony at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada in 1983.
In his acceptance speech, Charles praised those who had “sacrificed their lives 40 years ago” in the fight against Adolf Hitler.
Yet the award was conferred on him by a Nazi collaborator – the university’s chancellor Peter Savaryn.
Originally from Ukraine, he served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS – the so-called Galicia division – during World War Two.
Savaryn was among thousands of Waffen-SS Galicia men who escaped to the West after 1945, often with British assistance.
He included a photo of himself on stage with Charles in his Ukrainian-language autobiography From Ternopil to Alberta published in 2007, a decade before his death.
Princess Diana was also pictured with Savaryn several times, with one photo still hosted on the University of Alberta’s website.
The admiration was mutual. Savaryn himself received a Royal honour, the Order of Canada, in 1987.
Governor General Mary Simon, the British monarchy’s representative in Canada, apologised for that last year.
She stated: “Historical appointments to the Order of Canada reflect a specific moment in time, and would have been based on limited information sources available at that time.”
However Simon did not mention in her apology that Savaryn had awarded Charles an honorary degree in 1983.
Savaryn’s memoirs also include a photograph of him with one of Simon’s predecessor’s, Governor General Ray Hnatshyn.
He received an honorary degree from the University of Alberta in 1994 in similar fashion to Charles.
This pattern of Savaryn and the British monarchy exchanging honours was omitted from Governor General Simon’s apology.
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