Queen pays tribute to Falklands fallen

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By Caroline Davies
Last Updated: 4:48pm BST 14/06/2007

Twenty-five years after the liberation of the Falkland Islands, the Queen joined Baroness Thatcher to mark the anniversary at a special service of commemoration with veterans and families of those who never returned.


The Queen and Lady Thatcher at the ceremony

In tribute the 255 British servicemen's lives lost during the conflict, she placed the last stone on a memorial cairn at the Falklands Memorial Chapel in Pangbourne, Berks.

Watched by Prime Minister Tony Blair, his wife Cherie and Lady Thatcher, the Prime Minister who sent the naval Task Force 8,000 miles to reclaim the islands from Argentine occupation, the Queen was handed the stone by James Hailwood, 25, from Chepstow.

He never knew his father Christopher, who perished aboard on RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) Sir Galahad during the conflict.

The cairn has been built out of stones bought back by relatives and friends who travelled to the Falklands to see first hand where their loved ones died.

Included in it were 255 stones, collected last year from key sites on the Falklands by the crew of HMS Chatham – one for each of the British lives lost during the 74-day campaign.

The Queen's stone had been brought personally by the Governor of the Falklands, Alan Huckle, and was blessed during a service of commemoration in the chapel, before being handed to her by Mr Hailwood.

Mr Hailwood, who was just six months old when his father was killed, said: “We must remember those who knew them - I never knew my dad - because it's more difficult for them,” he said.


RAF jets flew over the commemoration chapel

The Queen and Prince Philip, who accompanied her, knew as much as anyone gathered at the chapel who, quarter-of-a-century ago, waited anxiously for news.

Prince Andrew served as a naval helicopter pilot during the campaign. He returned. But for those gathered whose sons, husbands, fathers and brothers did not, it was not just about commemoration.

For Sara Jones, CBE, the widow of Falkland's hero Colonel “H” Jones, killed in the battle for Goose Green and posthumously awarded the VC, the service was also about “celebration and pride in what was achieved”.

The £2.3m chapel, shaped like a ship's bow and dominated by a bright, vibrant memorial stained glass window symbolising the stormy south Atlantic ocean in which many of those perished, was officially opened by the Queen in 2000.

Telegraph