Revealed: The fascinating meaning behind Queen Camilla’s striking skull and crossbones brooch as she pays poignant tribute to fallen soldiers

Next week, the Princess of Wales will mark Armistice Day by making a solo outing to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

Queen Camilla looked sombre as she paid tribute to fallen soldiers at Westminster Abbey’s Field of Remembrance

Samir Hussein

The Princess will be surrounded by veterans and visitors as she lays a wreath at the Armed Forces Memorial and observes the traditional two-minute silence to pay respect to the fallen. The Service of Remembrance will also see a poetry reading by Poet in Residence Arji Manuelpillai, as well as performances by the Black Voices a capella choir and Talent in the Ranks, a programme supporting singers, songwriters and poets from the Armed Forces.

After meeting with the veterans in attendance at the event, the Princess of Wales will spend time with secondary school students whose parents are deployed, continuing her passion for education and supporting the emotional well-being of the next generation. To conclude proceedings, Catherine will attend ‘Letters from the Frontline – Words, War and Victory’, an exhibition featuring correspondence between military servicepeople and their families at the end of the Second World War.

Catherine has plenty of links to the Armed Forces, both in her official capacity as a royal and through some highly personal family traditions. In August 2023, following the accession of King Charles, she was named Commodore-in-Chief of the Fleet Air Arm, Colonel-in-Chief of the 1st Queen’s Dragoon Guards, and the Royal Honorary Air Commodore of the Royal Air Force Coningsby. The last of the three roles is an especially personal one for the Princess of Wales. After all, her grandfather, Captain Peter Middleton, once served in the RAF, reportedly flying as a co-pilot with Prince Philip during a 1962 tour of South America.