Royals Plant Poppies To Mark WW1

5 August 2014, 11:36

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry have visited the Tower of London to each plant a ceramic poppy.

The art installation symbolises the thousands of lives lost during the First World War.

The visit to the exhibition, entitled Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red, at the Tower's moat comes a day after the Royals joined political leaders and relatives of the fallen in Belgium to remember the sacrifices and losses exactly a century on from Britain's entry into the war.

A moving twilight ceremony at St Symphorien military cemetery near Mons was the highlight of a day of events in the UK and Belgium marking 100 years since the Great War's start.

Today William, Kate and Harry visited the dry moat at the Tower - the site where more than 1,600 men swore an oath to the crown in August 1914 after enlisting for war.

The first ceramic poppy installed as part of the Historic Royal Palaces artwork was planted last month, and the final will be laid on Armistice Day, November 11.

In total 888,246 ceramic poppies, one for each British and Colonial death during the war, will be installed by a team of 8,000 volunteers.

Profits from the artwork will be divided between six service charities including Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.