Thousands line The Mall for VE Day parade with Princess Kate and kids to arrive

The Irish Sun

05-05-2025

THOUSANDS have eagerly lined up along The Mall ahead of today's VE Day military parade in London.
Commemorating the
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Thousands have been spotted lining The Mall ahead of a large military procession this afternoon
Credit: George Cracknell Wright
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Groups have been seen waving Union Jacks ahead of the appearances of royal family members at the parade
Credit: PA
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The procession will pass the Cenotaph, which serves as a memorial to the fallen from both world wars and subsequent conflicts
Credit: Alamy
Members of the royal family are expected to be out in full force at the
Countless people have lined The Mall in order to commemorate the end of the war, with many donning patriotic outfits.
Some were spotted draped in Union Jacks while others wore
Chris Sutton, 41, told The Sun that being on The Mall for a royal event was a 'bucket list' experience.
Read More on VE Day
The royal fan, who wore a Union Flag umbrella hat, said: 'My grandfather served in the war and sadly he's no longer with us.
'So I am doing this for him today, and to remember his contribution.'
The King and Queen have said they are "
It is understood that, out of respect for the surviving veterans, Buckingham Palace hopes "nothing will detract or distract from celebrating with full cheer and proud hearts that precious victory and those brave souls, on this most special and poignant of anniversaries".
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After the celebrations begin at midday, members of the Firm, as well as the prime minister, will observe military units in the procession along The Mall from Whitehall.
Honouring those who served during the devastating war, the King and Queen, William and Kate, Edward and Sophie, Anne and Sir Tim Laurence will all be in attendance, alongside veterans from the Royal British Legion.
The Royal Family are then also set to make an appearance on the balcony at Buckingham Palace as a flypast of 23 military aircraft, both new and old, takes place at around 1.45pm.
Led by Lancaster bombers from World War Two, the flypast will also feature the iconic
The prime minister said this week's events are a reminder that victory was "not just for Britain", as personnel from the US, France and Germany will be among those joining the military procession.
Summary of today's procession and flypast
Celebrations will kick off exactly as Big Ben strikes noon, with more than 1,000 servicemen and women parading in Parliament Square.
Actor Timothy Spall will be centre stage as he reads some of Winston Churchill's most famous wartime speeches.
100-year-old former RAF battlefield engineer Alan Kennett will have place of honour, carrying the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Torch for Peace flame throughout the parade.
The procession will feature Major General James Bowder, head of the Household Division, leading soldiers on horseback from The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, and the Household Cavalry.
They will be followed by hundreds of servicemen and women from the Army, Navy and Royal Marines.
Nine military bands from the Irish Guards, RAF and garrisons at Tidworth, Catterick and Colchester will march into Whitehall where they will pass the Cenotaph, decked out for the first time ever in only Union Flags.
The parade will also include 10 officers from the Ukrainian army.
Military nurses, cadets and civilians will bring up the rear of the procession that will march up Whitehall to the Mall.
At the Queen Victoria Monument, the procession salutes King Charles, Queen Camilla as well as William and Kate, who will be sitting with PM Keir Starmer and 50 people from the greatest generation on a specially built platform.
These men and women include Royal British Legion veterans and those who lived through the war, such as evacuees, land girls and Bevin boys who worked down the mines.
Then, at around 1.45pm, the royals will appear on the famous balcony at Buckingham Palace as they watch a
Led by a World War Two Lancaster bomber, the aircraft will fly along The Mall and then over Buckingham Palace.
The Lancaster will be followed by modern RAF planes – a Voyager transport aircraft, P8 Poseidon and Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft, Typhoons, F-35 Lightning fighter jets and the Red Arrows.
Battle of Britain Memorial Spitfires will not be in London on Monday but they are doing fly-pasts over Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, West Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.
Brits might be kitted with an extra layer after
In an open letter to veterans, he said: "VE Day is a chance to acknowledge, again, that our debt to those who achieved it can never fully be repaid."
Following the grand flypast, the King and Queen will host a tea party for veterans and members of the Second World War generation at the palace, starting at around 2pm.
The 30 veterans, and 20 people who lived through the Second World War, will attend the garden party alongside the prime minister, Charles and Camilla.
They will also meet the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal and Sir Tim Laurence, as well as the Duke of Kent during the reception.
Those commemorated include British and Commonwealth Armed Forces veterans from the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force, who will be accompanied by their families and carers.
Also in attendance will be veterans of the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wren), Special Operations Executives, D-Day veterans, and Desert Rats - those who were still in active conflict in other parts of the world after VE Day.
Ensuring the home front is also remembered, there will also be attendees from those who contributed to the war effort within the UK.
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People have been spotted covered in Union Jacks as they celebrate Britain and the Allies' victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two
Credit: George Cracknell Wright
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Flags appear to be the style of choice for today's parades, with one man donning a stylish Union Jack-et
Credit: PA
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Union Jack hats have also been seen across the board as people await the military procession and royal appearances
Credit: George Cracknell Wright
10 female veterans who served as vital codebreakers, drivers, and mechanics will join the tea part, including Joyce Wilding, 100, who was in "Churchill's Secret Army", and Ruth Bourne, 98, who served as a Wren at Bletchley Park, intercepting Nazi messages throughout the war.
Both had been outside Buckingham Palace in huge crowds 80 years ago, celebrating VE Day in 1945 in front of King George VI, the Queen Mother, a young Queen Elizabeth II, and Princess Margaret.
Following Queen Elizabeth II's death in 2022, this year will be the first landmark VE Day commemoration without any of the royals who stood on the balcony that day.
While Victory in Europe Day is on May 8 each year, officials have dedicated the Early May Bank Holiday today to the celebrations.
This year, The Marble Corridor of Buckingham Palace will be decorated in bunting made from fabrics recycled from the Royal estates, as guests enter for a tea party reception to honour the bravery and service of the Second World War generation.
Following this, HMS Belfast, which fired some of the opening shots in the D-Day sea battle off Normandy and is now moored on the River Thames near Tower Bridge, will hold VE tea party onboard, hosted by the Imperial War Museum at around 4pm.
The royal family will take part in a number of events over the next four days, leading up to the actual marker of 80 years on Thursday.
Pubs have been given permission to stay open late on May 8 in order for celebrations to last well into the night.
The royals' appearance today marks the first major event since
Veterans attending the tea party at Buckingham Palace
Norman Trickett, 98:
Joined the Army aged 18, and ended up being taken prisoner of war.
He fought in D-Day with the infantry landing on Gold beach before fighting through Northern France, Belgium and Holland.
He served at Arnhem, helping Airborne Troops beat back German counter attacks, then fought through Germany and the Netherlands where he was captured by Germans at the beginning of May 1945 leading an advance scouting patrol and ended the war as a prisoner in Bremerhaven.
He stayed in the Army and served with the Royal Engineers in Italy, Africa and Palestine until 1948.
Arthur Oborne, 99:
Served in the Desert Rats, took part in the D-Day landings and took a bullet through the lung as troops advanced across France and had to be airlifted to hospital.
In 1945 he was at his final posting, at the 44th Prisoner of War Camp at Goathurst near Bridgwater, where he was put in charge of rations and transport for the camps throughout Somerset holding Nazi prisoners.
Tom Stonehouse, 99:
Fought in D-Day, remembers "losing lots of Essex Regiment friends in the Battle of Caen".
He met his brother marching in the opposite direction into Arnhem and encountered 11 German soldiers during a patrol in the Netherlands.
Soon after VE Day, Tom was told that he was being sent out to Asia to continue fighting, so celebrations for VE Day were muted.
Tom's wife's birthday is on VE Day so they always celebrate the birthday and their war memories together.
Joyce Wilding, 100:
Enlisted in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) aged 18, and worked in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), known as Churchill's Secret Army.
Joyce transported forged documents and helped agents behind enemy lines.
VE Day was filled with joy and celebration, she recalls: "We went to Piccadilly where there was a stream of people singing and dancing; we joined a crocodile and did the Palais Glide down Piccadilly; there were soldiers up lampposts, it was extraordinary.
"We were outside Buckingham Palace and you could hardly move there were so many people cheering and singing."
Joy Trew, 98:
Served in the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) and remembers being fascinated with aviation ever since seeing German aeroplanes dropping bombs over her school playground.
She joined the Women's Junior Air Corps, and after watching her sisters choosing to work in the factories after being called up, Joy knew she didn't want that.
She remembers teenage boys in the air corps eager to fly and join up, and thought "I can do this", and so enlisted in the WAAF aged 17, and her father wasn't pleased so didn't sign her papers until the night before she had to return them.
Gilbert Clarke, 98:
Was in Jamaica in 1943 when news came that volunteers were wanted for the RAF, so he lied about his age and within days, he was kitted out, receiving basic training and being sent on a troop-carrying ship to Britain via the United States.
The journey to Britain was marked by torpedo attacks from German U-Boats which hit a number of ships travelling alongside Gilbert's.
He finally arrived in Britain in March 1944.
Olga Hopkins, 99:
Was a wireless mechanic in the WAAF, and vividly recalls the ecstatic moment when VE Day was called.
She recounts 'lying in my bed in our Nissen Hut at around midnight, listening to the American Forces Network radio station, when suddenly the programme was interrupted by a Tannoy announcement saying, 'The war is over. The war is over. It's been signed'.
"We all jumped out of bed and put our battledress on over our pyjamas.
"We went to the sergeant's mess where there was a party going on, so we joined in.
"I remember me and some other girls singing the Cole Porter song 'Don't fence me in' and I had a whale of a time."
Betty Hollingberry, 102:
Left her bank job in 1942 to volunteer with the WRNS.
She was one of six sent to Eastcote to join HMS Pembroke V, but wasn't told much at the time.
Their job was to operate the Bombe machines, designed to help break German Enigma codes.
Each Bombe rapidly tested possible settings of the Enigma machines, narrowing down the possibilities for codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
It was highly secret, repetitive, and mentally demanding work requiring great concentration and later, the work grew more intense as the Germans deployed new weapons like Doodlebugs and V-planes.
Frederick Pickering, 100:
Joined the Royal Navy in 1943 and served on minesweepers, and was on board a ship on VE Day when the Tannoy announced there was Victory in Europe.
That day they all celebrated with two tots of rum and later went on to do a Victory March in Leghorn.
After the war, he continued his work minesweeping in the Mediterranean and wasn't demobbed until 1947.
Bernard Morgan, 101:
A Royal British Legion ambassador and D-Day veteran who still has the original telex he received to say the war had ended.
He volunteered on his 18th birthday in 1942 and served in the RAF until 1947.
Bernard was a codebreaker during the war, and the equipment he used was so sensitive that he couldn't risk it being captured by the enemy.
He landed on Gold beach at 6.30pm on D-Day, becoming the youngest RAF sergeant to land in Normandy.
Two days before VE Day, he received a telex to say 'German war now over, surrender effective sometime tomorrow', but kept it secret.
Alan Kennett, 100:
Returned to Normandy with the Royal British Legion for last year's D-Day 80, and is 'honoured' to be the procession torch bearer.
Alan was in the RAF with the Mustang Squadron and after the D-Day landings, was in Celle near Belsen on VE Day.
He remembers being in the station cinema on the evening of May 4th, when the doors burst open and a soldier drove in, in a jeep.
Initially annoyed by the disruption, the cinema soon erupted with joy as Battle of Britain pilot Johnnie Johnson shouted, 'the war is over'.
A big party soon followed, filled with lots of drinking and celebration.
Henry Ducker, 104:
Called up to join the RAF in 1940 aged 19, he will be the oldest among the veterans the Royal British Legion is taking to Buckingham Palace for tea with the King and Queen.
He worked as a flight mechanic and vividly recalls being in a convoy of ships in the Med and coming under enemy aircraft attack.
He served in Italy – where he spent VE Day – and worked on Hurricanes which saw action in Monte Cassino.