MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A nostalgic visit for Prince Andrew

The announcement that the Duke of York will be visiting the Falkland Islands in November as part of the events marking the 20th anniversary of the 1982 Conflict has been enthusiastically welcomed in the United Kingdom as well as by Islanders.

Sir Rex Hunt, Governor and Commander in Chief at the time of the invasion, and now Chairman of the Falkland Islands Association, said: "There could be no one better. He is exactly the right person".

Sir Rex was still Governor when the Duke, who fought as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot in 1982, returned to the Islands three years later to open the huge Mount Pleasant military complex built to ensure future defence of the islands.

Prince Andrew, as he is also known, was only 22 when he carried out a series of dangerous missions from the aircraft carrier, HMS Invincible. After a 22-year career in the Royal Navy, he is now a roving international trade ambassador for the United Kingdom.

In events earlier in June, commemorating the end of the conflict, it has been announced that the British Government will be represented by the Minister for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram, aged 55, a Scottish Member of Parliament. He will be joined by a party of sixteen military personnel and civilians who were involved in 1982 and who are returning to the Islands for the first time as guests of FIG, together with their partners.

Freedom of Falklands for Armed Forces

Following a church service on June 14th, commemorating the end of the conflict, wreaths will be laid at the Liberation Monument in Stanley.

The Governor, Donald Lamont, in accordance with a decision of the Legislative Council, will then bestow the Freedom of the Falkland Islands on all components of the British forces serving in the Falklands or the waters surrounding the Islands now or in the future.

The Commander of British Forces in the Falkland Islands, Commodore R J Ibbotson DSC MSc RN, will accept the Freedom, and, as is the tradition, contingents of the Forces will march through the streets of Stanley with bayonets fixed.

The Freedom of the Falkland Islands is the highest honour that can be bestowed, granted in recognition of a debt of gratitude, by decision of the Legislative Council. The Freedom of the whole of the Falkland Islands has been conferred only once previously, to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who ordered the Task Force to liberate the Islands. Lady Thatcher, who visited the Islands immediately after the confli