2023-09-08 19:05:13
By Thamayanthi McAllister & PA MediaBBC News8 September 2023, 08:25 BST
Updated 43 minutes ago
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Queen Elizabeth II was the nation’s longest reigning monarch
The Prince and Princess of Wales have marked the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death with a small private service in Pembrokeshire.
Prince William and Catherine attended a service at St Davids Cathedral, which included a commemoration of the late Queen’s life.
Afterwards they talked to local people who met Elizabeth II during her visits to the UK’s smallest city.
It is exactly a year since the nation’s longest-reigning monarch died aged 96.
St Davids has been a site of pilgrimage and worship for more than 1,400 years, since St David – the patron saint of Wales – settled there with his monastic community in the Sixth Century.
Since the Reformation, one of the quire stalls has been in the possession of the Crown and is known as the Sovereign’s Stall.
This makes St Davids the only UK cathedral where the sovereign has a special stall in the quire.
Image caption,
The Princess of Wales received poses from children from Ysgol Penrhyn Dewi
Elizabeth II was the first monarch to visit St Davids Cathedral since the Reformation, when she arrived at the site with the late Duke of Edinburgh during a royal tour to Wales in August 1955.
She sat in the special stall then, and on three subsequent occasions during her visits to the cathedral – which dates from 1181 and welcomes around 300,000 visitors annually.
St Davids has officially been a city since 1995, when Elizabeth II presented the then town council with letters patent elevating it to the status of a full city council during a ceremony at the cathedral.
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
The Prince and Princess of Wales met residents of St Davids after the service
BBC reporter Dafydd Morgan in St Davids
There were plenty of flags being waved along the streets of St Davids this afternoon as the locals waited for their royal highness the prince and princess of Wales to arrive at the far end of Pembrokeshire.The September heat didn’t seem to put anyone off as the royal couple made their way towards St David’s Cathedral to commemorate the life of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Image caption,
The royal couple visited Câr y Môr Seaweed Farm
It was then on to the coast and, as if by magic, the sea mist that had been lingering on the south west Wales coast lifted providing spectacular views across Ramsay Sound.
The royal couple made their way to Câr y Môr Seaweed Farm, before heading towards St Davids RNLI lifeboat station.
There they met staff and volunteers of an organisation that her late majesty was a patron of until her death last year.
1694202498
#William #Kate #mark #anniversary #Queens #death #Pembrokeshire