MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Prince Edward remembers the dead of Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram

Brigadier Nick Davies, Prince Edward, Adam Ingram MP and Gov. Mr.Alan Huckle during at Fitzroy

On the second day of his visit to the Falklands to represent Her Majesty The Queen in the events commemorating the liberation of the Islands from Argentine occupation in 1982, HRH Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex sailed from Stanley to Fitzroy aboard the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship, Gold Rover.

Completing the final part of the journey by helicopter, the royal visitor's destination, on a fine, bright, but chilly morning was the cluster of memorials overlooking the approaches to Fitzroy Harbour, where in 1982, two other ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary service: Sir Tristram and Sir Galahad were attacked by Argentine planes with disastrous consequences. The attack left 53 men dead and 46 wounded, mostly members of the Welsh Guards, whose effectiveness as a fighting unit was effectively compromised from that moment. Not only had they suffered the worst casualties of any action in the war, but all their kit was lost too. Accompanied by the British Minister for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram MP, the Governor of the Falkland Islands, Mr.Alan Huckle and the Commander British Forces South Atlantic Islands, Brigadier Nick Davies, Prince Edward, who was dressed in the uniform of Grand Commodore of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service (RFA) laid wreaths, first at the Celtic Cross memorial to the fallen Welsh Guards and later at the memorial to those members of the RFA who also lost their lives. At each of the memorials, a simple ceremony was conducted by the military Force Chaplain, Padre Norfield. The formal business of remembrance over, the Prince chatted for a while to those who had participated, including the family of one young guardsman who died on the Sir Galahad. His mother, who moved to the Falklands with other members of her family soon afterwards, also laid a wreath on the Welsh Guards memorial as she has each successive year for the last twenty-five. John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley

Categories: Politics, Falkland Islands.

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