100-year-old Lichfield veteran among those to join King Charles III for VE Day tea party

Second World War veterans, aged from 98 to 104 years old, are to meet the King at a Buckingham Palace tea party in a special event to help mark VE Day, the Royal British Legion has said.

A 98-year-old former prisoner of war, a 99-year-old who served in the Desert Rats and took part in the D-Day landings and a 100-year-old woman who worked in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), known as Churchill’s Secret Army, are among 30 veteran guests of honour, according to the Royal British Legion (RBL), who helped organise the event.

The visitors will have prime spots to watch the military parade and flypast in central London as the nation's VE Day 80th anniversary celebration begins today. 

Get the latest headlines delivered straight to your inbox with the Express & Star’s free newsletter

Among those to attend the tea party will be 100-year-old Second World War veteran, Alan Kennett, from Lichfield, who will be leading the VE Day processions in London today. 

Mr Kennett will be leading the procession of some 1,300 members of the armed forces marching through the streets of central London, but not before he sits down for a spot of tea with King Charles III.

In an earlier interview with the PA news agency, Mr Kennett recalled being 'gobsmacked' after bumping into his father by chance during the Allied invasion of Normandy.

In the interview, he said he was working on one of the aircraft following the landing in Normandy when "one of the lads" came up and informed him that a soldier was looking for him. 

“Then up comes my father – I had no idea he was there,” he said, as he remembered meeting his father Leonard.

“I was gobsmacked. It was pure chance. We just congratulated each other and it was in the local newspaper.

“We had a little chat for half an hour or so and then he left – I never saw him again for the rest of the war.”

Mr Kennett was 18 years old when he joined the RAF in 1942 with the story of his chance meeting with his father even making the papers at the time. 

He will now lead the procession, which will begin with Warrant Officer Emmy Jones, a young air cadet, handing over the Commonwealth War Graves Torch For Peace to Mr Kennett. 

He said: "I will feel very proud - to think I'm still here. I just remember those that didn't come back, that's the thing that sticks in my mind. I'm lucky. 

"I got out. There's a lot that didn't believe me. Luck of the draw. It shouldn't be forgotten."

Also attending the tea party will be Joyce Wilding, 100, who enlisted with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry at the age of 19, and Ruth Bourne, 98, who was a Wren at Bletchley Park where Nazi messages were intercepted.

Olga Hopkins, 90, is also among the 10 female veterans who served as codebreakers, drivers and mechanics to attend.

Also attending will be RAF veteran, Gilbert Clarke, 98, who was in Jamaica in 1943, who lied about his age to respond to the call to join the RAF.