Buckingham Palace marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with a commemorative Changing of the Guard this morning.
In a special service on the Palace’s red gravel forecourt, the Band of the Coldstream Guards performed the two national anthems in a moving show of solidarity between the US and Britain.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester represented the King at the ceremony and took the Royal Salute under the beaming sun in front of the Palace’s centre arch.
They were accompanied by US Ambassador Warren Stephens and his wife, Harriet, the Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, the Security Minister Dan Jarvis and some 40 invited guests comprised of British and American nationals.
Wearing their iconic scarlet tunics and towering black bearskin hats, the Guards’ marched from St James’s Palace and down the Mall to the Palace performing The Thunderer and The Stars and Stripes Forever, two famous US military marches. They would be replacing the outgoing Irish Guards.
During the ceremony the band played Hymn to the Fallen (from the American war film Saving Private Ryan) and Amazing Grace with the sun shining brightly off the brass instruments.
When the second song was played, many of the thousands gathered outside the Palace gates started to sing the famous hymn. They broke out into applause and loud whoops when they had finished and the royal party headed inside.
The other assembled guests stayed outside for another 40 minutes for the completion of the Changing of the Guards.
Earlier on Friday, the US Ambassador and his wife laid a wreath in Grosvenor Square at the 9/11 Memorial Garden.
“Harriet and I want to pay our respects to the 67 UK citizens who were killed on 9/11 25 years ago,” he said. He added it is “hard to believe” 25 years have passed and “still hard to believe what happened”.
Ambassador Stephens described the attacks as “a tragedy none of us will ever forget”.
Two days after the deadliest terror attack on American soil, the late Queen Elizabeth II instructed the Guards to perform the US National Anthem during Changing of the Guard to show solidarity with America in its time of great loss.
It marked the first time another nation’s anthem had been played during the ceremony, as the Guards typically only play them for visiting foreign leaders.
On their state visit to the US earlier this year, the King and Queen laid flowers at the September 11 Memorial in New York and met families of those who died.
And last month, the Duke and Duchess attended the inaugural National Day for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism at Lancaster House on behalf of the King.
