Military piper begins commemorations in Normandy on 80th anniversary of D-Day

A military piper comes into shore on a DUKW amphibious vehicle ahead of playing a dawn lament on Gold Beach in Arromanches in Normandy, France, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings

Royals and world leaders are set to gather with veterans in the northern French region to mark the occasion on Thursday.

At Gold Beach in Arromanches, Major Trevor Macey-Lillie paid tribute to fallen veterans, who led the biggest seaborne invasion in military history, by playing Highland Laddie as he came ashore.

The piece was also to remember a lone piper who played in the Normandy landings and was never shot at.

A re enactor holds a lantern during a ceremony at Utah Beach near Saint-Martin-de-Vareville Normandy on Thursday

Major Macey-Lillie began in a landing craft utility before being driven up the beach in a DUKW amphibious vehicle.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was spotted coming down to Gold Beach ahead of the tribute.

Also on Thursday, the King and Queen will pay tribute to fallen soldiers at the UK’s national commemoration event at the British Normandy Memorial, in Ver-sur-Mer, along with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The site, which opened in 2021, pays tribute to 22,442 service personnel under British command who died on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944.

A pipe band plays during a ceremony at Utah Beach near Saint-Martin-de-Vareville Normandy on Thursday morning

It will be the first major anniversary event hosted at the memorial, and Charles and Camilla will officially open the Winston Churchill Centre for Education and Learning following the commemorations on Thursday.

Their scheduled visit comes after an emotional ceremony in Portsmouth on Wednesday where the King appeared to wipe away a tear during an event where he paid tribute to the “courage, resilience and solidarity” of veterans.

Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales is set to attend the Canadian commemorative event at the Juno Beach Centre, Courseulles-sur-Mer, before joining more than 25 heads of state and veterans for the official international ceremony on Omaha Beach, Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.

Following the piper on the beach in Arromanches, commemorations will continue in the French town including a veterans’ parade, air and firework display.

Christophe Receveur, of France, unfurls an American flag he bought six month ago in Gettysburg, Penn., to mark D-Day on Thursday morning on Utah Beach, Normandy

Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France, will host a service led by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

In the UK, an 80-strong flotilla of boats will leave from Falmouth, Cornwall, where thousands of troops departed to take part in the invasion, while a beacon-lighting ceremony will take place in Aylesford, Kent.

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh will join veterans at a Royal British Legion remembrance service at The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will meet veterans at a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The event, D-day 80: Remembering The Normandy Landings, will be hosted by Davina McCall and feature music from the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, as well as Lulu, Katherine Jenkins, Emeli Sande and D-Day Darlings lead vocalist Katie Ashby.

The weather is expected to be “generally dry” during the commemorations, the Met Office said.