Overview

• King Charles’s six-minute audio message honoured the service and sacrifice of British and Commonwealth troops in the Pacific and Far East.
• In a rare royal acknowledgment, he explicitly cited the human cost of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
• The National Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum featured wreath-laying by the King, Queen Camilla and Prime Minister Keir Starmer alongside 33 surviving veterans.
• A nationwide two-minute silence, flypasts by the Red Arrows and historic WWII aircraft, and evening illuminations marked the conclusion of the commemorations.
• Organisers and veteran groups will now focus on recording testimony and raising public awareness as the number of surviving Far East veterans dwindles.