THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE BRITISH NORMANDY MEMORIAL

Seventy-seven years on: an historic moment as the British Normandy Memorial to fallen servicemen and women is officially opened.

On Sunday 6 June, the 77th anniversary of D-Day, the British Normandy Memorial was officially opened. The Opening Ceremony was broadcast live to an audience at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, where more than one hundred Normandy Veterans gathered.

Patron of the Normandy Memorial Trust, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, opened the British Normandy Memorial virtually with a special video message to Normandy Veterans. The Opening Ceremony was presided over by the British Ambassador to France, Lord Edward Llewellyn.

A small group, including 97-year-old British Normandy Veteran David Mylchreest, French Minister for the Armed Forces, Madame Florence Parly, Senior French guests and Chairman of the Normandy Memorial Trust Lord Peter Ricketts, gathered in front of the ‘D-Day Wall’ for the long-awaited opening in Ver-sur-Mer.

The British Normandy Memorial records the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. This includes people from more than 30 different countries. Inscribed in stone, their names have never, until now, been brought together. The site also includes a French Memorial, dedicated to the memory of French civilians who died during this time.

The opening of the Memorial included the special ribbon-cutting moment, the laying of the first wreath and a flypast by the Red Arrows.