Emotional Queen Camilla admires 30,000 poppies in striking new WWII installation

The has admired a new display of nearly 30,000 ceramic poppies at the Tower of London to mark 80 years since the end of the

Camilla toured the striking installation, The Tower Remembers, which represents a “wound” across the inner walls of the fortress, symbolising the . Poppies flow down the side of the White Tower, where a frozen “splash” of the blood-red flowers begins a cascade of poppies through the heart of the fortress, before emerging under St Thomas’s Tower.

Nearby, the poppies form a crater with ripples flowing outwards, resembling a “wound” at the heart of the Tower, which still bears the marks of the bombings which killed five people, including a Yeoman Warder during the Blitz.

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Camilla, in a red wool crepe dress by Fiona Clare and black cape, wore black leather gloves embellished with poppies, which she was given on the State Visit to France in 2023.

“It was so cold this morning I thought it would be the perfect time to wear them,” she said.

But the chilly briefly gave way to brilliant sunshine as she arrived at the Tower’s East Gate and was received by its Governor Brigadier Andrew Jackson and its Constable Gordon Messenger.

She greeted Sir Nicholas Coleridge, Chair of Historic Royal Palaces, with a kiss on each cheek and shook hands with John Barnes, CEO of the charity, which looks after the Tower among other key landmarks.

Camilla then walked through a Guard of Honour formed of six Yeoman Warders, and was led onto the lawn to inspect the new installation by project lead Tom O’Leary.

There was cheering and applause from the crowd of tourists watching from behind a cordon, and one man shouted: “God save the King! We all love Camilla! Give us a wave!”

Then the Queen met the Tower’s Deputy Governor, Brigadier Anna Kimber, Yeoman Warder Tracey Machin, along with her son Harrison, five, and D-Day veterans Henry Rice, 99, a former Royal Navy signalman and Richard Aldred, a tank driver in the Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.

“It's very nice to see you,” she told the veterans. “Not too cold?”

Richard handed the Queen a ceramic poppy, while Henry presented one to Harrison and they paused while Poet Laureate Simon Armitage read out a specially commissioned VE 80 poem, “The World Asks a Great Deal of the Poppies,” before planting each of the flowers into the ground to complete the installation.

“That was lovely,” she told the poet, who handed her a copy of the poem in a presentation box before admiring her gloves. “These were given to me in France last year. It was so cold today I thought it was the perfect opportunity to put them on,” she said. “How long did it take you to write?”

Told he had been working on it for about three months, she gestured to the poppies, saying, “This is rather beautiful, it really is.”

Speaking afterwards Henry Rice said: “Last year I went to Normandy and had the pride and pleasure of meeting His Majesty and Her Majesty. I said to her quietly, ‘We met last year’, she said, ‘Yes, I know’ and that that is fabulous. I mean, why should she remember me?”

He described the King and Queen as “A gentleman and his lady,” adding “That’s truly the best compliment I can pay to both of because that's exactly how I feel about them, and I'm speaking truthfully as well.”

He said of the installation: “Each one of those poppies represents a man that gave his life to allow me, my family, this country, in fact, to live in peace and comfort.

“I don't go around thinking of men that gave their lives and all that sort of thing. But then suddenly, when you're in a situation, you're sitting quietly, or you're out walking in the park, and suddenly it comes into your mind, and you realise exactly what these men did, how I really do thank them, and they are my heroes, all of them. Those that are alive even.

“I was in the Royal Navy, on board ship. These men then left my ship. I was on landing ships, and they ran up the beach into a hail of bullets and everything, and I sat quietly on my ship. They were so brave, but I don't know whether I could do it.”

The new display, which is open to the public from today until 11 November, uses poppies created for the 2014 installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red , which saw the Tower encircled by a sea of more than 880,000 ceramic flowers.

The 30,000 in use this year are among 40,000 that were bought for the nation by philanthropists Dame Vivienne Duffield and Dame Susie Sainsbury after the original installation and donated to the Imperial War Museum.

Camilla greeted each of the women warmly at the Tower today and again said of her distinctive gloves: “They were given to me in France for D-Day last year. “How lovely to see you, where does time go?”

Gesturing again to the poppies on display, she added: “It’s so beautiful. I can see why people want to take them – I think it’s quite tempting sometimes, I was quite tempted,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “They are so lovely, but they are not for sale!”

The Queen then signed the visitors’ book, joking, “Everything’s going to take off,” as a gust of wind lifted the pages.

Camilla then met pupils from Cardwell Primary School in Woolwich, who showed off poppies they had made from card.
“They are so cool, you can match them up with the ones in there,” she said, pointing to the ceramic poppies behind the children.

Then on an impromptu walkabout, the Queen also shook hands with some of the hundreds of tourists who had chanced upon the royal visit during their own tour of the Tower.