Prince George carries out biggest royal duty yet by charming veterans at VE Day party

A D-Day veteran told it was "very important" for him to attend the VE Day commemorations as "there aren’t many of us left". The young prince joined his parents the Prince and , alongside the King and Queen today at , for a special tea party honouring our greatest generation.

As the , veterans, members of the Second World War generation and their families shared stories over tea and cake. Moving from table to table across the Marble Hall, William and Kate guided George, 11, throughout his biggest royal engagement to date.

The future king listened intently as his father chatted to Alfred Littlefield, 101, who served during D-Day and asked questions of his own about how he felt when the war was over.

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Alfred, originally from Cosham near Portsmouth, told the two princes how he signed up to the Army aged 20, and joined the D-Day landings, bravely swimming into the Normandy beaches under heavy shell fire. Inquisitive George asked: "What was it like when you were coming in?", to which Alfred replied: "Pretty awful."

After talking to the father and son duo for a few minutes, Alfred, now 101, turned to George and said: “You know, it’s very important you are here today. It’s days like this that we should use to talk about things like this, so the younger generation can have some understanding.” Turning to , Alfred said: “You should be very proud.”

The Royal British Legion (RBL) today said it was “proud to put Second World War veterans at the heart of the commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day”. The charity has been working closely with the government to ensure Second World War veterans who wish to, can attend the events in London.

Other royals at the tea party included Princess Anne and Sir Tim Laurence, Prince Edward and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, and the Duke of Kent. Politicians including PM Sir , leader of the opposition and foreign secretary also joined the event.

Henry Ducker, 101, the oldest Second World War veteran also joined the tea party and had not spoken about his experiences for 80 years. Chatting at the tea party about the invite to the anniversary, he said: "It was wonderful and not something I have seen in my lifetime and will never again.

"And I hope we will never see a war again I hope we have no more wars. I never told anyone about my time in the war for 80 years. I never got my medals. "Then my great-grandchildren found out and I got my medals in a box. It was an honour to be here." Speaking about being the oldest WWII veteran he said: "No one can catch me up!"

Army veteran Charles Auborn, 99, from London, joined the war effort as an 18-year-old in 1955, serving as part of the 90th City of London Regiment as a Gunner.

He was sent to fight in North Holland and when VE Day was announced he was sent to Germany before going to Belgium with the view to being shipped out to assist the Americans in Japan. He told the Princess of Wales how he was deployed to Egypt before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, joking how his officer’s first words on his return to the UK were “how are you boys for shorts?” before he was sent to Cairo and then on to Palestine and later Tripoli.

Kate then ushered George to the table to meet the former gunner, saying: "This is my son George I was telling you about." Showing George pictures of M4 Sherman tanks he operated during the war, the prince asked him "Were they hard to operate? It must have been very tough with the ."

Kate held his hand and looked at a photo of Charles from his younger days and said to him: "Look at you, you are a very handsome young man." After speaking for five minutes, Charles turned to Kate to say: “You’ve got a nice-looking boy there, you’re going to have to keep an eye on him.”

At the tea party, the Princess of Wales caught up with former frontline codebreaker Bernard Morgan, 101, who she had sat next to on the dais outside Buckingham Palace during the parade. Warmly greeting him, Kate said: “Bernard! How lovely to see you again. I hope you have warmed up, it was a bit chilly out there wasn’t it."

Further down the second table, William and George spoke to Dougie Hyde, 99, who joined the Merchant Navy in 1944, aged just 18. He started out working as a ‘fireman’ stoking boilers and later, he joined a secret operation to liberate Europe, spending months going back and forth to the beaches deploying munitions and amphibious vehicles.

Showing an avid interest, George asked the foreman seaman “Did you ever get shot at?” and “Did you ever see a U-boat?” After their chat, Dougie said: “I was very impressed with the lad’s interest. I told him luckily I wasn’t ever shot at but we did lose one of our fleet in the Channel.

“He was very polite and listened with interest. Whenever I used to do talks to young kids, that’s all you ever wanted, for them to listen and have a little understanding of those days. I think it’s so important for us to remember and they put on a lovely spread.”

Working opposite ends of the Marble Hall, the King stopped to talk to Ruth Bourne, 98, about her days working as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. Ruth, from High Barnet, was a Bombe machine operator and checker during WWII.

She joined the WRNS at 17 in 1944 and was assigned to ‘H.M.S. Pembroke V’. Bound by the Official Secrets Act, she worked on over 200 Bombe machines decoding Nazi messages, though she didn’t hear the term ‘Enigma’ until after the war. She didn’t reveal her codebreaking work for more than 30 years after the war.

The King said to her: “We owe you all an immense debt of gratitude. Without you, things could have been very different.”

Before the tea party - with the Marble Hall decorated in bunting made from recycled fabrics from the Royal estates and WWII heroes served sandwiches, quiche, sausage rolls, scones, cake and pots of tea - veterans and their families were taken to the Buckingham Palace terrace overlooking the gardens. They were treated to music from the Band of the Royal Marines and a tri-service guard of honour.