Prime Minister Rishi Sunak began commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, as he handed a torch to a 99-year-old veteran of the landings.
Mr Sunak was handed the torch of commemoration by Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) director general Claire Horton, before passing it to Navy seaman D-Day veteran Peter Kent at Horse Guards, London on Tuesday morning.
The CWGC torch relay is intended to visually symbolise the passing down of the D-Day message through generations with British Army soldiers, Household Division horses, cadets and CWGC volunteers also attending Tuesday’s ceremony.
It will also play a pivotal role in the vigil at the CWGC’s Bayeux War Cemetery on June 5.
The CWGC was founded by Royal Charter in 1917 with a mission to ensure the remembrance of the courage, loss and sacrifice of those who died in the First and Second World Wars.
