The United Kingdom paused in solemn remembrance today as the King and Queen led the nation in marking the 80th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day, a tribute to the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of all who served during the Second World War.
At the National Memorial Arboretum, Their Majesties bowed their heads in a two-minute silence alongside the Prime Minister and elderly veterans, some aged over 100, who once fought in the brutal closing chapter of the global conflict.
Overhead, the RAF Red Arrows painted the sky in tribute, as 1,500 guests gathered, including 33 surviving veterans aged between 96 and 105.
The King, wearing the Stone Field Marshal Number 4 uniform, laid a wreath, while the Queen, Colonel-in-Chief of The Rifles, placed a posy in honour of the fallen.
The service, hosted by actress Celie Imrie, was rich with personal testimony from those who once fought or endured captivity in the Far East. Ronald Gumbley, 101, recited Laurence Binyon’s For The Fallen:
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old… We will remember them.”
Owen Filer, 103, read the Kohima Epitaph, while 105-year-old Yavar Abbas, a former captain in the 11th Sikh Regiment, stepped away from his prepared remarks to salute the King. “I make no apology for going briefly off the script to salute my brave King,” he declared, noting that both he and the monarch had faced cancer. “If it provides any comfort… I’ve been rid of it for the past 25 years and counting.”
The emotion of the day was palpable. Veterans wiped away tears, their memories spanning from submarine service in the Pacific to enduring prisoner-of-war camps. John Harlow, 100, recalled the loss of the submarine HMS Porpoise, which never returned from its final mission. “War doesn’t grant you the luxury of goodbyes,” he said quietly.
In a recorded address, the King reflected on the legacy of his great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, who commanded Allied forces in South East Asia and received the Japanese surrender at Singapore in 1945. His Majesty paid tribute to the unity of nations, faiths, and cultures that fought side by side, declaring:
“In times of war and in times of peace, the greatest weapons of all are not the arms you bear, but the arms you link.”
He also made a rare royal acknowledgment of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, calling them “a price we pray no nation need ever pay again.”
Across the country and the Commonwealth, commemorations included dawn bagpipe laments, naval services at sea, and gatherings at memorials from Norwich to Edinburgh. The Prince and Princess of Wales wrote in a message:
“We owe an enduring debt to the generation who gave so much, and to whom we will always be grateful. Lest we forget.”
Eighty years on, the words of the veterans, the presence of the royal family, and the nation’s united silence affirmed one truth: those who served in the Far East will never again be called the “Forgotten Army.”
Photos: MOD Crown Copyright News / Editorial Licence.
