Princess Anne lays wreath at B.C. veteran’s cemetery

ESQUIMALT, B.C. –

Princess Anne spent greater than an era Saturday traveling God’s Acre veteran’s cemetery and its little, picket chapel, laying a wreath to celebrate the greater than 2,500 army body of workers and people participants buried there.

The seek advice from to the secluded, tree-covered Esquimalt, B.C., cemetery is a part of the princess’s three-day West Coast seek advice from, which began Friday in North Vancouver together with her participation within the commissioning of the primary Arctic patrol vessel for Canada’s Pacific fleet, HMCS Max Bernays.

God’s Acre is a countrywide historical website that dates again to 1868.

Princess Anne’s excursion can even see her attend a commemorative carrier on Sunday for the Struggle of the Atlantic on the B.C. legislature.

She could also be scheduled to seek advice from the Royal Victoria Yacht Membership Sunday and participants of the Victoria Healing Using Affiliation upcoming within the hour.

The excursion of the cemetery subjects by means of Princess Anne, the sister of King Charles, carries stunning usefulness, mentioned David Loveridge, the Commonwealth Conflict Graves Fee director for Canada, Americas and the Pacific.

The princess is the flow president of the Commonwealth Conflict Graves Fee, overseeing its mandate to handle 23,000 warfare memorials and warfare cemeteries around the globe commemorating 1.7 million Commonwealth casualties, he mentioned.

“To have her here in Canada and to come to God’s Acre veterans’ cemetery to lay a wreath is a great event for us to commemorate the veterans who are here,” mentioned Loveridge.

Princess Anne was once on board HMCS Max Bernays early Saturday when it entered the fleet’s house bottom in Esquimalt Harbour to the greeting of a 21-gun salute.

She wore a Canadian army uniform Saturday, together with a Canadian Fleet Pacific hat.

Army fanatics and royal watchers collected at the shores of Fortress Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse to greet the send and the princess.

“She’s commodore of the navy, an honourary commodore, and she did the commission ceremony and spent the night on the boat after it left Vancouver,” mentioned Iain MacAulay. “So, yes, cool.”

Murray Baines mentioned he sought after to get a have a look at the HMCS Max Bernays and catch a glimpse of the princess.

“I saw somebody out there waving,” mentioned Baines. “I even had my little binoculars, but I couldn’t make out who it was.”

The Section of Nationwide Defence mentioned in a remark Friday the professional creation of HMCS Max Bernays into the fleet incorporated “a symbolic presentation of the keys to the ship” to the commanding officer, Commander Collin Forsberg, “along with the breaking of the ship’s commissioning pennant, and three cheers by the ship’s company.”

Forsberg instructed journalists forward of the rite that the patrol vessel arrived in its untouched house port in Esquimalt endmost life. He mentioned the send was once “designed for, principally, exercising Canadian sovereignty in northern waters.”

He mentioned the creation of the send, which was once named then a Canadian naval hero within the 2d Global Conflict, will permit the army to raised meet generation defence demanding situations within the North.

This document by means of The Canadian Press was once first revealed Might 4, 2024.