The Duke of Gloucester paid a visit to the RAF Oldham recently, where he honored several members of the Royal Air Force with medals, commendations, and awards for length of service. The Duke serves as the Honorary Commodore for the RAF station, and is known for his commitment to honoring the men and women of the British military.

According to an article from This Is Hampshire, the Duke said to the honorees that, “Your role is absolutely vital for so many of the tasks that the British forces are carrying out”. The Duke presented medals and commendations in twelve different categories. Among the award winners was Flight Sergeant Lee Renard, of the 27th Squadron, who airlifted six injured civilians in a Chinook after they had been caught up in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan in 2008. One of the civilians died on the way to the hospital, but five other lives were saved because of his actions.

After giving out the awards, the Duke watched as a RAF display team performed stunts in a Chinook helicopter. He also helped to plant a cherry tree at the helicopter support memorial in honor of Armed Services Day.

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 Last August, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester took a trip to the nation of Tonga in order to be present for the coronation ceremony of King George Tupou V. They also visited the Solomon Islands. It is now revealed that the cost to fly the Duke and Duchess to the South Pacific was £149,413, according to an article by the Press Association. The information was revealed in a report on royal accounting that was recently released.

The Duke and Duchess made this trip at the request of the Foreign Office. The money for the trip is funded by the British taxpayers. The report also revealed that in 2008, the royals took more commercial charter flights than in 2007. The cost of all royal travel in 2008 was 300,000 pounds higher than in 2007, at £6.5 million.

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Click here to see the photo from the BBC

Today, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, along with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and his wife, Sarah, attended the very first Armed Forces Day celebrations at the Historic Dockyard, in Chatham, Kent. This is not the first time that Great Britain has honored the military; the event was previously known as Veteran’s Day. The name has been changed to Armed Forces Day, in order to include the thousands of men and women who currently serve in the British military, according to a report by the BBC.

In addition to the Duke and Duchess, 30,000 people attended today’s events, which included a fly-over by the Red Arrows and the Royal Air Force’s Battle of Britain Memorial Display Team. Throughout Great Britain, concerts and parades are taking place in many cities. Despite the fact that Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales were unable to attend, they did send greetings of “deep and enduring gratitude” to the veterans and military members, and the Queen presented campaign medals to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in Edinburgh.

Currently, British military members are serving in 11 different nations, as well as working with the UN. There will be more events throughout the week in honor of the Armed Forces.

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 There will be no ’senior royals’ attending the inaugural Armed Forces Day in Kent, according to the British media. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will attend the event, and one Buckingham Palace spokesman has referred to the couple as ’senior royals’, although this does not seem to match the call from the public.

The palace official pointed out the Duke and Duchess’s multiple visits to the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan last year. The Duke is the patron of the Normandy Veterans Association, and 19th in line to the throne.

The event will take place on Saturday at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, and the Duke and Duchess will receive the royal salute as Her Majesty’s representatives. On the same day, Queen Elizabeth will be in Edinburgh to present the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards with campaign medals, whilst the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be at Highgrove. Princes Andrew and Edward are both otherwise engaged.

Armed Forces Day aims to increase public awareness and appreciation of the Armed Forces.

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Click here to read the article from BBC News

 On Saturday, June 20, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester attended a memorial service dedicated to the 66 servicemen and women who lost their lives in 2008. The service was held at the Armed Forces Memorial in the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire. It was attended by the families of the deceased, the Duke and Duchess, and the Defense Minister, Baroness Ann Taylor, according to the BBC.

The memorial honors the 16,000 people who have died while on duty, or have been killed by acts of terrorism, since World War II. During yesterday’s ceremony, the 66 names were added to the wall of the Armed Forces Memorial. Baroness Taylor spoke during the ceremony, and stated that the names of the deceased “….will endure so that they can always be remembered”.

To learn more about the Armed Forces Memorial, please click here.

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