As we discussed earlier, the usual suspects are absolutely furious that Prince Harry arranged to have a letter and a wreath laid at the Burma Star Memorial on VJ Day. I noted in my earlier coverage that the Windsors’ treatment of Harry specifically on military/veteran issues and war commemorations comes across as audaciously cruel and short-sighted, not to mention completely unhinged. The left-behinds proudly state that THEY are the only ones who can recognize military service because they are “working royals.” They don’t see why Prince Harry can’t understand that he is simply not allowed to recognize the sacrifices of servicemen because he moved to California!! The fact that Harry did more than Prince William – who commemorated VJ Day with a tweet from his vacation home in Norfolk – isn’t sitting well with any of these deranged individuals. Speaking of, Richard Eden’s new Mail column is about all of this, and about how much Prince Philip hated Harry! Ah, of course.
Harry’s public tribute to his grandfather has, I can reveal, provoked a sceptical reaction from those who knew the late duke.
‘What hypocrisy,’ one friend of the Royal Family told me. ‘Harry hurt his grandfather deeply during the final year of his life.’
Harry’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, for example – in which he and his wife, Meghan, attacked the royals in the most personal way, even accusing an unnamed senior member of his family of racism – was broadcast when Philip was in hospital with what turned out to be his final illness. The duke’s hospital stay had been no surprise as he was then aged 99 and had been in increasingly poor health. Prince Philip died four weeks after the Oprah interview was broadcast.
Harry’s decision to have a wreath and long letter placed at the Burma Star Memorial is striking. Working members of the Royal Family, such as Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, the Prince and Princess of Wales, did not leave wreaths. Not because they don’t care but because they purposely allowed the commemorations to be led by the King and Queen.
The fact that Harry was able to ‘hijack’ the national service of remembrance, as a royal source put it to me, has caused unease at the palace.
When he tried to do something similar in 2021, Queen Elizabeth personally intervened to stop him. Harry, who stepped down as a front-line royal the previous year, had wanted to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in London on Remembrance Sunday alongside those of other members of his family. But, as my colleague Rebecca English revealed at the time, the Queen took ‘all of two seconds’ to make up her mind and refuse permission.
‘Remembrance Sunday is sacrosanct when it comes to Her Majesty’s diary,’ a source explained at the time. ‘It’s one of the most important dates in her calendar and nothing is done without her knowledge. People were suggesting the Palace’s reaction to what Harry asked was petty. But it was the Queen’s decision. And what’s more, she actually had very strong views on the subject.’
Another source said: ‘While she has enormous admiration for Harry’s achievements both in and out of the military, this was seen as an example of his lack of understanding at what it means for him to be a non-working royal. The Queen is very firmly of the opinion that you can’t pick and choose what you do when it comes to the institution. Either you are in – or you are out.’
What’s clear to me is that the King needs to take a leaf out of his mother’s book and take a firmer line with his younger son. Harry, by apparently trying to upstage his older brother, the heir to the throne, is undermining him. Just as the late Queen stopped Harry having a wreath laid for him at the Cenotaph, the King should have prevented this latest attempt by the Duke of Sussex to take advantage of his military connections. When it comes to publicity-seeking Harry and Meghan, the King, as Head of the Armed Forces, should remain on guard.
Eden is literally arguing that Harry, a veteran who served two tours in an active war zone, should not be ALLOWED to place a wreath in commemoration of a war. That Buckingham Palace needs to “prevent” a veteran’s commemoration because it “undermines” the heir’s tweet. “The Prince and Princess of Wales…did not leave wreaths. Not because they don’t care but because they purposely allowed the commemorations to be led by the King and Queen….” O RLY? Such self-sacrifice from William and Kate to NOT show up, to NOT leave a wreath, to NOT commemorate the sacrifices within the Pacific theatre of World War II. All because Charles and Camilla were already there! *furious foot stomping*
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, screengrabs courtesy of GB News.
