Breaking News: King Charles and Kate Middleton will lead national celebrations for the 80th anniversary of VE Day….See More

King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William, and the Princess of Wales are set to reunite for a host of poignant events to mark 80 years since World War Two ended in Europe

King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William, and Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales will reunite to lead the nation in marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day this May. The celebrations, which commemorate the end of World War Two in Europe, are set to be a highlight of the royal calendar, with the Firm out in full force for a series of events in honour of the nation’s war heroes.

The most significant of the occasions? A tribute to the fallen during a Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey on 8 May. In addition to the crown couple and the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Edward and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh are expected to pay their respects, alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer and a roll call of service veterans and their families.

King Charles is said to be ‘determined to pay tribute to our war heroes’ as he continues his battle with cancer, per The Express, and sources have suggested that His Royal Highness may well issue a personal message of thanks to the nation’s armed forces.

Britain will put on full pomp and ceremony to mark 80 years since Victory in Europe Day, with Keir Starmer calling the celebrations an opportunity to ‘do that generation proud’. A parade of veterans will make their way from Westminster Abbey, past the famous balcony where Winston Churchill announced the end of the war in Europe, to Horse Guards Parade, where they will be welcomed by an RAF and Red Arrows flypast. A concert is also scheduled to take place at Horse Guards, and King Charles will lead senior royals for commemorations at the Cenotaph.

The Bank Holiday weekend leading up to VE Day (from Saturday 3 May to Monday 5 May) will see the nation’s streets come alive with street parties. Some of London’s most historic landmarks, including St Paul’s Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, and the Houses of Parliament, are set to be lit up with V-shaped beams of light, in a recreation of the celebrations back in 1945.

It was a momentous day, 80 years ago, when five years of war came to an end in Britain. Queen Elizabeth herself, then a 14-year-old princess, famously left the gates of Buckingham Palace with a nine-year-old Princess Margaret to anonymously join the crowds in their celebrations. The Queen’s cousin, Margaret Rhodes, accompanied the sisters and later described how ‘it was like a wonderful escape for the girls, I don’t think they’d ever been out among millions of people. It was just freedom – to be an ordinary person.’

Queen Elizabeth II herself would later speak of the night she spent, disguised in her uniform cap among her people as she celebrated VE Day – she called it ‘one of the most memorable nights of my life.’ Speaking of the evening in a highly personal BBC interview in 1985, the late monarch recounted ‘lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief. I also remember when someone exchanged hats with a Dutch sailor; the poor man coming along with us in order to get his hat back.’