PRINCE Harry “pleaded” with Buckingham Palace for a wreath to be laid on his behalf during Remembrance Sunday, he has claimed.
The Duke of Sussex said four requests for a wreath to be laid in honour of fallen soldiers had been “denied” – calling the decision a “sneak preview” of the Palace’s plan to “cut ties”.
Prince Harry says his requests to have a proxy lay a wreath on his behalf was denied
Prince Harry was unable to attend Remembrance Sunday in 2020 due to Covid
The Prince, 38, was unable to travel to Britain for the annual remembrance ceremony because of Covid travel restrictions during 2020’s scaled-back ceremony.
He writes: “Just before Remembrance Day I asked the Palace if someone could lay a wreath for me at the Cenotaph, since, of course, I couldn’t be there. Request denied.
“In that case, I said, could a wreath be laid somewhere else in Britain on my behalf? Request denied.”
Harry, who served in the military for 10 years between 2005 and 2015, continued: “Nowhere in the world would any proxy be permitted to lay any sort of wreath at any military grave on behalf of Prince Harry”.
“I pleaded that this would be the first time I’d let a Remembrance Day pass without paying tribute to the fallen, some of whom had been dear friends. Request denied.”
The Prince, whose book Spare is set to hit shelves on Tuesday, revealed he ultimately asked a former instructor from Sandhurst Military School to lay a wreath on his behalf at a memorial unveiled by the Queen in 2017.
Harry asked the instructor to place the symbol of remembrance at the Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial in central London, adding it “had just been unveiled a few years earlier. By Granny.”
Harry and Meghan marked Remembrance Sunday in 2020 by visiting the graves of Commonwealth soldiers buried in Los Angeles National Cemetary.
The couple placed their own wreath in front of an obelisk in snaps of the private visit released by a photographer.
Harry was dealt another Remembrance Sunday blow in November, when the Duke of Sussex’s special wreath was removed from a display at The Poppy Factory, in Richmond, South West London.
