Rishi Sunak begins commemorative torch relay ahead of 80th anniversary of D-Day

Jamel Smith, PA

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak began commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, as he handed a torch to a 99-year-old veteran of the landings.

Mr Sunak was handed the torch of commemoration by Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) director general Claire Horton, before passing it to Navy seaman D-Day veteran Peter Kent at Horse Guards, London on Tuesday morning.

D-Day 80th anniversary
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hands the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) Torch of Commemoration to navy seaman D-Day veteran Peter Kent, 99 (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The torch will now travel to capital cities and key cemetery and memorial sites around the UK before crossing the channel with veterans for official commemorations in June.

The CWGC torch relay is intended to visually symbolise the passing down of the D-Day message through generations with British Army soldiers, Household Division horses, cadets and CWGC volunteers also attending Tuesday’s ceremony.

D-Day 80th anniversary
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the start of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Torch of Commemoration relay (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

This torch will take centre stage in the CWGC’s lighting of more than 25,000 Commonwealth war graves this summer.

It will also play a pivotal role in the vigil at the CWGC’s Bayeux War Cemetery on June 5.

The CWGC was founded by Royal Charter in 1917 with a mission to ensure the remembrance of the courage, loss and sacrifice of those who died in the First and Second World Wars.

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