Princess Anne marks important moment as tradition breaks

The royal family holds certain dates and tradition in high regards and rarely are they changed over the years, especially when it comes to commemoration of war heroes.

The royals, who have themselves been part of the service at some point, hold a personal connection to the event. Hence, it was Princess Anne, a sticker for tradition and loyal to the monarchy, took charge of the sombre event where a major change was welcomed.

On Wednesday, the Princess Royal marked “a significant moment in the continuing evolution of First World War commemoration more than a century after the Armistice”.

A new Brookwood 1914-1918 memorial was inaugurated by Anne, in her capacity as the President of the Commonwealth War Graves.

“Located at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom, the new memorial commemorates 400 First World War service personnel from the UK and Ireland whose graves were never formally found.”

Works Manager of CWGC, Gary Cook, revealed that Anne was interested in the “design process and how the stelae sit within that star constellation” and how they “managed to recycle a lot of the stone from the previous memorial”.

He added, “This is the first memorial of this kind that is complete step away from how we have done commemoration previously. So, to have project managed this is really exciting and it’s a great thing to be involved with. It’s something that you put your heart and soul into and you’ve spent six years of your life being involved in.”