At noon on Sunday 10th January cadets of 42F (King’s Lynn) Squadron Air Training Corps, together with King’s Lynn’s T S Vancouver Sea Cadets and a detachment of Norfolk Army Cadets were on parade at the Sandringham War Memorial for Her Majesty The Queen’s first public engagement of 2016.
Following their traditional Sunday Service attendance at Sandringham church the Queen and Prince Philip walked the 150 yards to the memorial that had been erected by the Sovereign’s grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary.
There Her Majesty and Prince Philip both laid wreaths to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War’s disastrous Gallipoli campaign which ended, on 9thJanuary 1916, with the evacuation of the last troops from the Turkish peninsular. The eight month campaign which begun in April 1915 saw terrible slaughter on both sides and resulted in 58,000 allied troops from Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India and France killed.
It was a poignant moment for the Queen as the memorial commemorates men from the Sandringham Estate, members of the 5th Norfolk’s, Sandringham Detachment, who never returned from that campaign. Having placed her wreath Her Majesty appeared deeply moved by the occasion.
The commemoration had been organised by the Gallipoli Association whose Patron is His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.
The several hundred members of the public who also watched the ceremony were delighted to also see their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who also attended.